7 arrested in Brussels anti-terror raids

Brussels, March 26: Three of the seven people arrested so far as part of the investigation into the Brussels terror attacks have been freed, Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed in a statement issued on Friday.

Three people arrested outside the offices of the federal prosecutor on Thursday, identified as Faycal C., Khalid A. and Mariam A., were released by the investigating magistrate.

Details of the police raids on Thursday in central Brussels and Schaerbeek were not disclosed, Xinhua reported.

A fourth person, Ali E., was arrested in Brussels on Thursday and taken in for questioning. On the same day, two other people, Abu A. and a second individual whose identity has not been made public, were arrested in their car on the Brussels ring road at the exit for Jette.

Finally, still in connection with the Brussels attacks, a man was arrested on Friday afternoon as part of a major police operation in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek, on the Place Meiser road junction.

A heavy police presence was deployed. According to La Libre newspaper, the man was wounded in the leg and taken to hospital, bringing to seven the number of people arrested since the attacks on March 22.

At the same time, Reda K., a 34-year-old Frenchman, was arrested in the Paris region during an operation led by France's internal security force DGSI. According to Le Monde newspaper, five Kalashnikov rifles, a machine gun, seven handguns and various ammunitions and chemicals were found at his home.

In the latest development, a metro station in central Brussels was evacuated on Friday afternoon, local media reported, without further details.

IANS