Europe tightens security as Paris manhunt continues
November 24, 2015
Brussels will remain in near lockdown mode with a heavy police and military presence for another week over worries of an imminent attack as Belgian and French authorities continue to search for Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks.
On Tuesday, French authorities were analyzing a discarded explosives belt found in the south Paris suburb of Montrouge the previous day.
Investigators found the explosives while looking for evidence of Abdeslam in the same neighborhood. According to telephone data, he had been there on the night of the attacks, which left 130 dead.
Belgian authorities have meanwhile charged a fourth person arrested in raids on Sunday.
Two males, aged 20 and 27, were charged on Monday for helping Abdeslam make his way to Brussels after the attacks. A third person faces charges of helping Abdeslam once he arrived in Brussels.
St. Denis landlord to face judge
In France, a man arrested for providing a place to stay to a group of individuals allegedly tied to the attacks went before a judge on Tuesday.
Jawad Bendaoud was arrested after a November 18 raid in St. Denis in which police killed three people, including the suspected leader of the attackers, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
The judge could either charge or release Bendaoud, who has said he did not know the individuals were terrorists and had only hosted them after being asked as a favor.
The other seven people arrested in the St. Denis raid have already been released.
Security gates on Thalys line
France will install security gates at train stations in Paris and Lille, a transfer to the Channel Tunnel to London, for high-speed international trains, Energy Minister Segolene Royal said on Tuesday.
The security measures are to go into effect by December 20 on the Thalys high-speed line and Eurostar connecting the continent to England.
Thalys travels from Paris to Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam.
The security gates with metal detectors will be installed in Amsterdam, Brussels and Cologne at a later date.
A terror attack on a Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris in August was thwarted after passengers overpowered the gunman.
cw/kms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)