Three more arrested by Brussels police

The federal prosecutor’s office said the operation was connected to the arrest in Paris on Thursday of an Islamist convicted in Belgium last year and suspected of plotting a new attack. 

Nine people have been arrested since Thursday in Belgium and two in Germany, as European authorities swoop on Islamic State militants they link both to the Brussels bombings that killed 31 people and to the attacks in Paris last November that killed 130. 

Ahead of one of the arrests, heavily armed police and troops with trucks cordoned off an area around a major intersection in the northern Brussels borough of Schaerbeek. Three blasts could be heard, which the local mayor Bernard Clerfayt said were controlled explosions. 

Belgian public broadcaster RTBF quoted Clerfayt as saying the suspect had been detained after being wounded and that he was linked to Tuesday’s suicide bombings in Brussels. It initially said he had been found to be in possession of a suitcase full of explosives but later news reports did not confirm that explosives were found. 

Witnesses said police appeared to shoot the man in the leg at a tram stop and that he appeared to have his daughter with him. “We heard ‘Don’t move’. The man was sitting at the bus stop, a bus stop with a glass wall, and we heard a small detonation and a big detonation,” said Norman Kabir, 38, an electrician who lives and works nearby. 

“Then the police came, took the little girl who was shouting ‘Dad’, she seemed terrified and the man got shot in the leg anyway because he was still moving,” Kabir told reporters. 

“Then the police asked him to move his bag. He was lying on the ground, but he did it and pushed the bag and a robot from the mine-sweeping brigade arrived. It came, grabbed the bag and took it away, then they took the guy, put him in a car and left. It took 20 seconds.”

US pop star Mariah Carey said that she was cancelling a tour stop in Brussels amid safety concerns following attacks this week that killed 31 people and injured some 270 more. 

The songstress, one of the best-selling female solo artists of recent times, was slated to perform in the now racked Belgian city on Sunday as part of her “Sweet Sweet Fantasy” European tour. 

“I love my fans in Brussels and at this time I am being advised to cancel my show for the safety of my fans, my band, crew and everyone.”