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'Suspect arrested, slightly hurt in Brussels anti-terror raid'

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AFP Brussels
Belgian police carrying out a fresh anti-terrorist operation today arrested a suspect, who suffered a slight injury, Schaerbeek Mayor Bernard Clerfayt said.

"I can confirm a police operation targeting a person who was intercepted by police and suffered a slight leg injury," the local official told AFP.

He added there had been several small explosions linked to bomb disposal work.

Police sources said the operation was connected to a foiled terror plot in France.

Amateur video footage on social media shot from an upper storey window shows a man lying by a tram station holding a small backpack.

After being screened by a bomb disposal robot, hooded police grab his legs and drag him away.
 

A French police source said the raid in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek was related to the arrest of 34-year-old Reda Kriket in Paris yesterday, who was found with heavy weapons and explosives in his apartment.

Kriket was sentenced in absentia by a Belgian court in February for his connection to a terror network in Brussels and linked to recruiter Khalid Zerkani.

Police had completely sealed off the area in the Schaerbeek district, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Schaerbeek is where police found a bomb factory after the Brussels airport and metro suicide attacks on Tuesday and from where the three airport attackers set off that morning.

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First Published: Mar 25 2016 | 9:42 PM IST

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