Paris attacks fugitive Abdeslam captured after shoot-out in Brussels

Europe’s most wanted man has been “caught alive” after being wounded in a Brussels shoot-out. Salah Abdeslam, who was being hunted over the Paris terror attacks in November, is believed to have been injured during a major police operation in the Molenbeek suburb of the city. At least 10 shots were heard and grenades were also used in the operation, it was reported. A police helicopter was heard overhead and many fire engines were seen near to the scene. Belgium’s prime minster Charles Michel has left the EU-Turkey migrant crisis summit as news of his arrest came through.

According to our information, it is more than likely that he is one of the two individuals who escaped during the shootout

Belgian broadcaster RTBF, referring to an earlier raid in another part of Brussels

Abdeslam, a French national born in Brussels, has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead. His older brother, Brahim, was one of the suicide bombers. Earlier, it emerged that he had slipped through the fingers of police who raided another Brussels hideaway on Tuesday. The 26-year-old was one of two men thought to have escaped as officers swooped on a flat in the Forest district of the capital. His fingerprints and DNA were found at the property, where another terror suspect was shot dead in gun battles which also left four police officers wounded.

We can confirm that fingerprints of Salah Abdeslam were found in the apartment in (the Brussels district of) Forest

Federal prosecutors spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt