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Paris attacks suspect Abrini arrested: police source

Paris attacks key suspect Mohamed Abrini was arrested on Friday in Belgium. The news was confirmed by a police source to French news agency AFP after a Belgian television station reported Abrini had been detained in a Brussels district.

Suspects Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Brahim Abdeslam, Samy Aminour, Omar Ismail Mostefai, Foued Mohamed Aggad, Bilal Hadfi, Salah Abdeslam, Mohamed Abrini.
Suspects Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Brahim Abdeslam, Samy Aminour, Omar Ismail Mostefai, Foued Mohamed Aggad, Bilal Hadfi, Salah Abdeslam, Mohamed Abrini. Police Nationale Belgique/ AFP
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The police source gave no details about the location or circumstances of Abrini's arrest but VRT television said it took place in the Anderlecht district of Brussels, home to several other suspects linked to the Paris attacks.

Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, was seen at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks with key suspect Salah Abdeslam, who drove one of the vehicles used in the 13 November attacks across Paris that killed 130 people.

Abdeslam was supposed to have blown himself but did not do so, fleeing instead back to Brussels. He was arrested in Brussels on 18 March following a four-month manhunt and is being held in a high-security prison in the northern Belgian city of Bruges while awaiting extradition to France.

At the same time prosecutors said police on Friday made several arrests in connection with the deadly Islamic State attacks on Brussels airport and metro last month.

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said they would provide more details later about the arrests in connection with the Brussels attacks.

"The federal prosecutor confirms that there have been several arrests in the course of the day in connection with the attacks on the airport and metro," a statement said.

The attacks killed 32 people and wounded hundreds of other people. 

- with AFP

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