Paris attacks: 16 arrested in Brussels anti-terror raids

BRUSSELS

Belgian police have arrested 16 people as part of 19 anti-terror raids carried out in the Brussels suburbs of Molenbeek, Anderlecht, Jettte, and Schaerbeek on Sunday.

Belgium’s public prosecutor announced after midnight that no firearms and explosives had been found in the large-scale operations.

Fugitive and Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam, sought in an intense manhunt in Brussels, was still not found, the prosecutor said at a press conference.

The maximum state of alert level was extended in Brussels where schools, universities and the metro would be closed on Monday.

As well as Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected organizer of the attacks in Paris who was killed in a police raid on Wednesday, several of the militants lived in Brussels, including Abdeslam, who was last seen heading for the Belgium border hours after the attacks.

According to a 2014 UN report, Belgium has the highest per capita number of fighters in Syria and Iraq of all European nations.

Friday’s attacks in Paris, blamed on Daesh, killed 130 people in the deadliest terrorist act in Europe in a decade.