Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam arrested: France, Belgium

PanARMENIAN.Net - Top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, one of the most wanted men in Europe, was captured in Brussels on Friday, March 18 during a raid by armed police, French police sources said, according to AFP.

Later that day, Belgian immigration minister Theo Francken confirmed the arrest of Abdeslam.

"We got him," Francken said in a tweet, minutes after French police announced the arrest in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, home to several of the Islamic State commandos who took part in the massacre.

It was not immediately clear if Abdeslam, 26, believed to have played a key role in the November 13 attacks claimed by the Islamic State group that left 130 people dead, was injured in the raid, AFP says.

One man was injured and another arrested unharmed in the Brussels raid, French police sources said, without identifying which was Abdeslam.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel held a crisis meeting after the arrest with French President Francois Hollande, who was in Brussels for a European Union summit.

Belgium has been at the centre of the investigation into the Paris attacks almost from day one.

Franco-Moroccan Abdeslam fled to Brussels after the attacks and is believed to have holed up in a flat for at least three weeks.

He slipped past three police checks in France as he fled to Belgium just hours after the terror assaults, a source close to the probe said in December.