The suspect, Mohamed Abrini, could be the mysterious “man in the hat” who escaped the double bombing at the Zaventem airport, but federal prosecutors said they still needed further verifications.
Friday’s arrest of at least two people came a day after Belgian authorities released photos and video of the airport suspect.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office confirmed “several arrests” but refused to provide more information. Five hours after the initial detentions, authorities were still carrying out a raid in the same area.
The government and top security officials gathered in a national security council meeting in the wake of Friday’s detention to assess the consequences of the operation.
Abrini was the last identified suspect still at large from the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people, although his precise role has never been clear. He is a 31-year-old Belgian- Moroccan petty criminal believed to have traveled early last summer to Syria where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Islamic State group’s notorious Francophone brigade.
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