Brussels attacks: Bomber in the white jacket still at large with several others

Several suspects linked to the terror attacks in Brussels are still at large, say federal prosecutors. Among them is Najim Laachraoui, thought to be the man seen wearing a white jacket and a hat in photographs of three men wheeling trollies loaded with suitcase bombs into the city’s Zaventem Airport. The 25-year-old, who fled the scene after the two others exploded their devices, was reported to have been arrested in the city’s Anderlecht district on Wednesday morning. Prosecutors later said the man detained was not the man in the cream jacket, adding that several people were on the run in the wake of the attacks.

The third man is on the run; he left his bag with the biggest bomb in it which exploded later because it was so unstable. This third person remains unidentified and is still being looked for.

Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw

Laachraoui had been widely named in Belgian media reports as the third man filmed on CCTV at the airport. Prosecutors have identified Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, as one of the two bombers who were among 16 killed at the airport. Ibrahim’s brother, Khalid, who was thought to have been the third man in the airport picture, has now been identified as the suicide bomber who blew himself up 79 minutes later at the city’s Maelbeek Metro station. Laachraoui, previously known as Soufiane Kayal, is also suspected of making the bombs used in November’s Paris massacres, after his DNA was allegedly found on suicide belts used in the Bataclan Theatre and the Stade de France.

Brussels manhunt