Suspect arrested in Brussels on Wednesday not Laachraoui: Belgian media
Posted Mar 23, 2016 07:33:56 AM.
Last Updated Mar 23, 2016 08:30:24 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Belgian media are correcting earlier reports the third suspect in Tuesday’s bombings at the airport in Brussels has been arrested, saying now that the suspect is not Najim Laachraoui.
A Belgian newspaper reported he had been arrested in Brussels on Wednesday, which Belgian prosecutors quickly shot down, but they did confirm a suspect was arrested in connection with Tuesday’s attacks.
Belgian police conducted raids into the night and circulated a photo of three men seen in the airport suspected of involvement in Tuesday’s attacks at the aiport and a subway station, killing 34 people.
Belgian state broadcaster RTBF has identified the other two attackers as brothers Khalid and Brahim Bakraoui, who are believed to have blown themselves up in the attacks.
The report on Wednesday says the brothers were known to police for past crimes, but nothing relating to terrorism.
RTBF says Khalid El Bakraoui had rented an apartment which was raided by police last week in an operation that led authorities to top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.
Last week, Belgian police said they were hunting for a suspected Abdeslam accomplice, Laachraoui. He is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the November attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed, according to a French police official who said Laachraoui’s DNA was found on all of them and in a Brussels apartment where they were made.
The airport and several Brussels metro stations remain closed Wednesday. Security forces stood guard around the neighbourhood housing headquarters of EU institutions, as nervous Brussels residents began returning to school and work under a misty rain.
ISIL has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
