Belgium detains one person in new search in Paris attacks case

Brussels: Belgian police detained for questioning one person today following a new search in the troubled Brussels immigrant neighborhood of Molenbeek in connection with the deadly Paris attacks, prosecutors said.

The person, who was not identified, will appear probably today before a judge who will decide whether to keep him or her in custody, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office told AFP.

Belgian media said the search took place in Rue Delaunoy in Molenbeek, the district which is home to Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam and which has served as a haven for jihadists in the past.

On November 16, three days after the Paris attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds of others, Belgian security forces carried out a raid at 47 Rue Delaunoy aimed at arresting Abdeslam.

Belgian public broadcaster RTBF said at the time that investigators had "detected signs during the raid that he had been there," speculating that accomplices had smuggled him out of the neighbourhood.

The Belgian authorities have detained a total of nine men in the case including four accused of helping Abdeslam get away from the Paris crime scenes in the hours after the massacre.

The attacks, claimed by the Islamic State jihadi group, and the Belgian links to them have shocked the country and sparked a sharp increase in visible security.

Armed police and soldiers now patrol the streets in Brussels, Europe's diplomatic hub and home to the European Union, NATO and a host of major companies.

The Paris onslaught stoked fears the city was fertile ground for Islamist extremists, who have in some cases gone to fight in Syria and returned home battle-hardened and even more determined.