Paris attacks fugitive Abdeslam's fingerprints found in Brussels raid flat
AFP
March 18, 2016 22:37 MYT
March 18, 2016 22:37 MYT
This handout picture released in a "appel a temoins" (call for witnesses) by the French Police information service (SICOP) on November 15, 2015 shows a picture of Abdeslam Salah, suspected of being involved in Paris attacks. - File pic
Police found fingerprints of Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam in a Brussels apartment raided earlier in the week, Belgian prosecutors said on Friday.
"We can confirm that fingerprints of Salah Abdeslam were found in the apartment in (the Brussels district of) Forest," spokesman for federal prosecutors Eric Van Der Sypt told AFP, refusing to add further details.
Belgium's RTBF television said that it was "more than likely" that Abdeslam was one of two suspects who fled the apartment after the raid, but it was not confirmed by Belgian authorities.
The firefight on Tuesday, in which an Algerian national with suspected ties to Islamic State was killed, erupted after Belgian and French police searched a property in connection with the November 13 Paris massacres, claimed by IS that killed 130 people.
The officers visited the apartment believing it was rented under the same false identity as a hideout in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi used by the Paris attackers.
Abdeslam, 26, who is believed to have played a key logistical role in the attacks, fled across the border to Belgium hours after the November 13 killings and is now one of the most wanted men in Europe.