Key suspect in Paris attacks Abrini 'arrested'

The key remaining suspect in November's Paris terror attacks, Mohamed Abrini, has been arrested, the BBC News said.

Sources cited in Belgian media said Abrini is also likely to be the "man in the hat" seen on CCTV before the blasts in the Brussels airport departure hall on 22 March.

Prosecutors confirmed that several arrests had been made in connection with the Brussels attacks.

The attacks on the airport and a metro station left 32 dead.

The gun and bomb attacks in Paris on 13 November killed 130 people.

Although the Belgian federal prosecutor confirmed that "there have been several arrests in the course of the day in connection with the attacks on the airport and metro", they would give no further details.

Local media reports suggest that Abrini, on the run for five months, was arrested in the Anderlecht district of Brussels.

Some media said that one of the other men arrested is suspected of helping suicide bomber Khalid el-Bakraoui at the Maelbeek metro station, but this has not been confirmed.

Belgian authorities had on Thursday released new video footage of the "man in the hat", appealing for the public's help in finding him.

Abrini, 31, a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, is believed to have been filmed at a petrol station with Salah Abdeslam, another arrested Paris attacks suspect, two days before the attacks there.

Abdeslam was detained in Brussels in March, days before militants launched attacks in the Belgian capital.

Source: MENA