Najim Laachraoui, 24, is thought to have made bombs in Brussels attack
He has also used the alias Soufiane Kayal fake documents to rent flat
His DNA was found in safe house used to plan the Paris attacks
Stopped by Austria-Hungary border guards in a rented car on September 9
Belgian Prosecutor hunting Laachraoui after he travelled to Syria in 2013
Continue for updates .....
Belgian
authorities are raiding the neighborhood of the bomb maker thought to
be behind November's Paris attacks as experts say he may have designed
the explosives that killed at least 31 people today in Brussels.
Najim
Laachraoui, 24, is also suspected of being responsible for the bombs
used in the Paris massacre after it was revealed his DNA was found on
suicide belts used in the Bataclan Theatre and the Stade de France.
Laachraoui
reportedly travelled to Syria in February 2013 and was stopped by
guards at the Austria-Hungary border on September 9 last year while
driving a rented Mercedes he shared with Salah Abdesalam, according to
the Belgian Federal Prosecutor.
Photo: AP
Shocking
images from Maelbeek station show the mangled remains of the train,
smoke pouring out of the building and casualties littered on the
pavement outside. Witnesses heard a loud bang at 9.19am - just over an
hour after two explosions killed at least 14 and seriously injured 50
in a suicide attack on the Belgian capital's main airport.
Commuters on the Brussels Metro network were evacuated into
smoke-filled tunnels and along the tracks to safe stations in scenes
reminiscent of the 7/7 attacks in London. The image above is being used
by the Belgian media who claim this is the damage caused by the bomb
at the Maelbeek Metro station in central Brussels this morning.
The pair were also travelling with Mohamed Belkaid, 35, the man shot and killed during the raid to capture Abdelslam on Friday.
It
is thought Laachraoui was not stopped as he was using a drivers
licence under a different name and traveled to Budapest twice in
September 2015.
On
this instance, the three men had posed as tourists heading to Vienna
on holiday and did not raise suspicions when they were stopped by
police.
Laachraoui
was also captured on CCTV with Belkaid four days after the attacks
during a money transfer in a Western Union bank in the Brussels area.
'The
investigation showed that Soufiane Kayal can be identified as Najim
Laachraoui, born on May 18, 1991 and who travelled to Syria in February
2013,' prosecutors said in a statement in Brussels.
It
is also using this alias that authorities have said he was in contact
via phone with Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and gave
him guidance in the lead-up to the November attacks.
He
has been identified as using the alias Soufiane Kayal - the name he
used to rent the safe house used by the Paris bombers to plan the Paris
attack, where his DNA has also been found as well as in their hideout
in Schaerbeek.
Photo: AFP/Getty ImagesFirst
picture: These three men, pretending to be air passengers, are
believed to the terrorists who have carried out the Brussels
airport. The two suspected suicide bombers on the left were both wearing
black gloves - which the Belgian media says would have hidden the
triggers for their explosive vests. The third suspect in the hat is
believed to still be on the run after dropping his nail bomb
At
the house on Rue Henri Berge, investigators found traces of TATP - a
signature explosive of ISIS in Europe, and was found in the suicide
vests used by the Paris attackers.
It
comes as Belgian federal prosecutors say a house search in the
Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek has 'led to the discovery of an
explosive device containing among other things nails.'
Investigators also found chemical products and an Islamic State flag.
A
Belgian prosecutor says police raids are happening around the country
after two men 'probably' staged suicide bombings at the Brussels
airport and a third fled.
Prosecutor
Frederic Van Leeuw said Tuesday that the third suspect - on the right
of the photo wearing a thick white sweater - is actively being sought
by police.
The
'masterbomber' Najim is believed to have studied electro-mechanical
engineering at a Catholic high school named as the Institute de la
Sainte-Famille d'Helmet by in an investigation by The New York Times.
Authorities
say it's not possible at this stage to establish any links between the
attacks Tuesday in Brussels and those in Paris on November 13 that
left 130 people dead.
Mr
Pantucci, the Director of International Security Studies at the Royal
United Services Institute, said information surrounding the 'mystery
bomb maker' Najim Laachraoui is still very sketchy.
He
said: 'We don't know much about him at this point. This individual is
being identified as a bomb maker but we have concerns whether that is
100 per cent true or if he's one of a number of bomb makers.
'This
terrorist group in Brussels had multiple, viable explosive devices. It
suggests they were dealing with someone with substantial experience.
'That
could be the same person responsible for the bomb devices in the Paris
attacks but it could be someone else, part of a larger cell.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Wanted:
Police have issued an appeal to catch this ISIS suspect, seen on CCTV
footage dressed in a white shirt and jacket and wearing a dark hat as
he pushed a luggage trolley through the airport minutes before two
bombs rocked Brussels Airport
'Given
the location and the nature and the use of explosives and guns the
thought process goes down the page of assuming it's linked to the
organised network around Abdeslam.
'We can't be sure but it would be surprising if it wasn't the same group.'
Foreign
Minister Didier Reynders said on Sunday that Salah Abdeslam, who was
arrested on Friday when was caught was 500 metres from his childhood
home, had claimed that 'he was ready to restart something from Brussels,
and it's maybe the reality,'
Reynders
gave credence to the suspect's claim because 'we found a lot of
weapons, heavy weapons in the first investigations, and we have seen a
new network of people around him in Brussels.'
Photo: AP
The moment of capture as Abdeslam is snared by armed officers following a tense siege in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels
Photo: AP
Sallah Abdeslam: Mastermind of Paris bomb attacks now in custody
Every
space in the city's airport is covered by four CCTV cameras and
Maelbeek station's surveillance network is also being used to pinpoint
the moment that 20 people were murdered and 55 were maimed 79 minutes
later.
Two men were detained by armed police at the North Station around a miles from the Maelbeek subway.
A
third man has been arrested on a train near Amsterdam and a suspect
package at Gard du Nord in Paris delayed Eurostar services this
afternoon.
But the Belgian Foreign Ministry has confirmed they believe some of the terrorists involved are 'still at large'.
Police and special forces are looking for known members of any terror cell who may be planning more attacks.
They
will also round up anyone who may pose a threat to the public, or
acting suspiciously, in an attempt to foil any more attacks.
Special
forces are also patrolling the streets in case of more bombings or
marauding gunmen used to kill 131 people in at least five Paris attacks
in November 13 last year.
Britain
and United States will already be playing a key role in trying to
help the Belgian authorities work out who was behind the attacks.
Photo: AP
Salah
Abdeslam (left), one of the most wanted men in Europe, did plan to
carry out a suicide bomb attack at the Stade de France. However, his
lawyer claims the French prosecutors' statement alleging Abdeslam's
involvement breached his client's confidentiality
The
accomplice was named today as Najim Laachraoui, a militant previously
known by the pseudonym Soufiane Kayal which he used to rent a flat
where the massacre was planned.
He
left for Syria in 2013 before returning to Europe last year and
travelled around the Continent with logistics chief Salah Abdeslam and
another senior member of the cell in the days before the attacks.
Police issued this photograph of Najim Laachraoui, one of the suspects of the Paris terror attacks who has gone on the run
Photograph
of Najim Laachraoui, one of the suspects of the Paris terror attacks
who has gone on the run suspect: CCTV images released today by
Belgium Federal Police shows Najim Laachraoui, who was previously
identified in a false passport (right) as Soufiane Kayal, during a
money transfer on November 17 - four days after the Paris terror
attack - in a Western Union bank in the Brussels Police issued this
New Other CCT
Other CCTV images released by Belgium Federal Police shows Paris
suspect Mohamed Belkaid, who is believed to have used the alias Samir
Bouzid, in the same branch of Western Union on the same day as
Laachraoui. Belkaid was shot dead two days before Abdeslam's capture in
a police raid
Prosecutors revealed traces of the 24-year-old's
DNA were found on explosives at the scene of the suicide bomb
attacks, suggesting he could be a bomb maker or armourer.
The
announcement came as a secret police dossier revealed there could be
up to 90 'kamikazes' waiting to launch suicide bomb attacks in Europe
after returning from Syria disguised as migrants.
The
report also lifted the lid on just how shocked security chiefs were
by the scale and complexity of the ISIS operation that killed 130
people in the French capital last November.
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