Paris attacks suspect’s hideout found in Brussels

In an apartment in the Schaerbeek district police found traces of explosives, and a fingerprint of fugitive and prime suspect, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam.

January 08, 2016 05:23 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 10:53 am IST - Paris

File picture shows French police with protective shields walking in line near the Bataclan concert hall.

File picture shows French police with protective shields walking in line near the Bataclan concert hall.

Belgian prosecutors on Friday announced that they may have found an apartment in capital Brussels where one of the jihadis hid after the November 13, 2015, terror attacks in Paris.

In an apartment in the Schaerbeek district police found traces of explosives, and a fingerprint of fugitive and prime suspect, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, BBC reported.

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said that traces of the explosive TATP and three handmade belts that might be used to transport explosives were found in the raid on December 10 in Rue Berge.

>Read: Paris under attack

The apartment had been rented out in a false name that might have been used by a person already in custody.

Police are still searching for Abdeslam. He is believed to have rented a Volkswagen Polo car in Belgium, which was later found near the Bataclan concert hall in Paris where 89 people were killed. But he also rented a Renault Clio and reserved two hotel rooms outside Paris before the attacks.

His precise role in the attacks is unclear, although his brother Brahim blew himself up.

Islamic State (IS) suicide bombers killed 130 people across six locations in the French capital.

The suspected ringleader was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national. He and his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen died in a fierce gun battle five days after the attacks, when police raided a flat in Paris where they were hiding, heavily armed.

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