Investigators found the fingerprints of a Paris attacks suspect who has been on the run since November in a Brussels apartment they raided this week, a Belgian prosecutor said today.
Two people escaped from the dwelling in the Forest neighbourhood of Brussels, but Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said it wasn't yet known if Salah Abdeslam, 26, was one of them. He also said it hasn't been established how old the fingerprints were, or how long Abdeslam spent in the apartment on the Rue Du Dries.
Abdeslam fled Paris after the November 13 gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people at a theatre, the national stadium and cafes. Most of the Paris attackers died that night, including Abdeslam's brother Brahim, who blew himself up.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which Belgian nationals played key roles.
Police who raided the Brussels apartment Tuesday found the banner of the Islamic State extremist group as well as 11 Kalashnikov loaders and a large quantity of ammunition, the prosecutor said.
A man was shot dead by a police sniper there as he prepared to open fire on police from a window. Police identified him as Mohamed Belkaid, 35, an Algerian national living illegally in Belgium.
Police who went to search the apartment "were not expecting a violent armed reaction," Prime Minister Charles Michel said.
Four officers, including a French policewoman, were slightly wounded when they were shot at as they opened the door.
Abdeslam slipped through a police dragnet to return to Brussels after the Paris attacks, and though he is the target of an international manhunt, has not been seen since.
In January, Belgian authorities said one of his fingerprints was found alongside homemade suicide bomb belts at an apartment in another area of Brussels. Belgian prosecutors said it wasn't known whether he had been at the address in the Schaerbeek district before or after the Paris attacks, or how long he had spent there.
