Belgian police arrest 12 terror suspects for 'plotting imminent attacks during Euro 2016 match against Ireland'

A network of terror suspects feared to be plotting imminent attacks has been shut down in a major operation in Belgium.

Sources told broadcaster VTM Nieuws they were planning to attack Brussels as football supporters gathered to watch Belgium’s Euro 2016 match against Ireland in on Saturday afternoon.

At least 12 people were arrested and 40 detained in total after police launched overnight raids across the capital and elsewhere in the country on Friday.

The federal prosecutor’s office said dozens of house searches had been carried out in 16 locations, including the Brussels districts of Molenbeek, Schaerbeek and Forest - which were also the location of safe houses linked to Isis attacks - as well as the city of Liège, Tubize, Fleurus, Wemmel and Ninove.

More than 150 garages and lock-ups were also searched but police said no explosives or firearms had yet been found.

“The investigatory results necessitated an immediate intervention,” a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office said, but would not give any further information as the investigation continues.

Belgium remains in a state of high terror alert following the Isis bombings at Brussels Airport and Maelbeek Metro station that killed 32 people in March.

The Prime Minister, Charles Michel, and his foreign, interior and justice ministers were among those put under protection on Friday evening on the advice of the national threat analysis agency.

Sources told local media the overnight arrests were unrelated to the case.

The crackdown came after another suspect was arrested in connection with the Brussels attacks.

A Belgian national named as Youssef EA, 30, is suspected of participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders, and remains in custody.

Earlier on Friday, five other suspected accomplices in the massacres were taken to a safe house used by Isis attackers for a reconstruction.

Police shut off the Avenue des Casernes in Etterbeek for the operation at 2pm local time (1pm BST), which investigators said was the “place of departure” for the bombing at Maelbeek Metro station.

The three militants who attacked the airport – Mohamed Abrini, Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui – travelled to their target in a taxi loaded with suitcase bombs from the Schaerbeek district.

But el-Bakraoui’s brother, Khalid, made his way to the Metro separately and detonated his explosives more than an hour after his accomplices.

He was allegedly accompanied by Osama Krayem, a 23-year-old Swedish man, who is also accused of buying the suitcases used to carry the bombs.

Krayem was present at the reconstruction alongside Smail F and Ibrahim F, Ali EHA, and former Sharia4Belgium member Bilal el-Makhoukhi.

Ali EHA was arrested earlier this month, while the two brothers are accused of renting the Etterbeek flat and attempting to destroy evidence and el-Makhoukhi is known to have fought in Syria.

All have been charged with terror offences related to the Brussels attacks and remain in custody.

Europe is on high alert as the Euro 2016 football tournament continues in neighbouring France, which is still in a state of emergency following November’s Paris attacks.

Investigators have confirmed links between the perpetrators of both atrocities, some of whom were based in Belgium.

Abrini, the “man in the hat” who fled Brussels Airport after his suitcase bomb failed to detonate, is accused of involvement in both plots.

He is currently in Belgian custody but could soon be extradited to France for questioning,

The 31-year-old Belgian, of Moroccan descent, was caught on camera with fellow suspect Salah Abdeslam two days before the Paris attacks and went into hiding until the bombings in the Belgian capital.

They are believed to be the only surviving direct perpetrators of both attacks but several suspects have been detained on accusations of providing logistical support.

Mohamed Bakkali, 29, allegedly rented the Brussels apartment where suicide vests were manufactured, while Abid Aberkan, a relative of Abdeslam, Ali O, 31, Abdoullah C, 30, Lazez Abraimi, 39, and Hervé BM, 31, have also been detained in connection with the plots.

Three other men - Aboubaker O, Yassine A and Mohamed B, remain in custody as part of a separate terror investigation.

Belgian police received an alert on Wednesday warning that a group of Isis fighters recently left Syria heading to Europe planning attacks in Belgium and France.

Reports claimed the militants were travelling without passports via Greece, but it was unclear how they would reach Europe under measures enforced since the EU-Turkey deal, which are seeing all asylum seekers arriving on Greek islands detained.