Brussels terror alert: Belgian police arrest sixteen after city-centre lockdown but Salah Abdeslam slips through net

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Sixteen suspected terrorists have been arrested in central Brussels during a major police operation amid warnings of an “imminent attack” on the city, according to a report.

The Derniere Heure website said one of the suspects was wounded as they were detained. It added that Europe’s most wanted man -- Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of being involved in the terrorist attacks on Paris – was not thought to be among those arrested.

He is believed to have returned to Brussels following the Paris attacks. Two of the Paris suicide bombers, Salah’s brother Brahim Abdeslam and Bilal Hadfi, also lived in Belgium.

Police carried out several raids in the area around Grand Place in central Brussels on Sunday. At one point, security forces closed off streets and yelled at people to stay away.

The public and the media were urged to keep “radio silence” about the police’s movements during the raids to avoid tipping off any potential terrorists. Many people responded by tweeting pictures of cats with the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown to drown out any messages that might be of use to a terrorist and show their support for the police.

Earlier in the evening, Prime Minister Charles Michel, speaking after a meeting of security chiefs called to review the terror threat status, said the capital's metro, universities and schools would be closed on Monday.

For the rest of the country, a threat level of three on a four-tier scale would remain in place, Mr Michel said. Brussels would remain at level four, meaning an attack was imminent, as it has been since Saturday.

“What we fear is an attack similar to the one in Paris, with several individuals who could possibly launch several attacks at the same time in multiple locations,” Mr Michel said.