6 arrested in Brussels bombing probe; France foils terror plot

Belgian police have arrested six people in Brussels as a major investigation continues into attacks that claimed 31 lives in the city on Tuesday.

IMAGE: A masked Belgian police takes part in police operations in Schaerbeek following Tuesday's bomb attacks in Brussels. Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters

Belgian prosecutors said the arrests were made during raids in central Brussels, Jette and the Schaerbeek neighbourhood -- where police found a large stash of explosives and other bomb-making material earlier this week in a flat believed used by the suicide bombers. There is no word yet on the identities of the suspects or their possible connection to the attacks.

The arrests came as officers in France swooped on a man suspected of being in the “advanced stages” of a plot to attack the country, in a raid on the outskirts of Paris.

France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said there were no links “at this stage” between the plot and the terror attacks in Brussels and in Paris in November.

IMAGE: Masked Belgian police secure the entrance to a building in Schaerbeek. Authorities found bomb-making materials during one of their raids in Schaerbeek. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters

France has been on high alert since the November 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more. Cazenueve said there had been 75 arrests since the beginning of the year and 28 suspects had been jailed.

The attack in Brussels, which is home to the European Union and NATO, has heightened security concerns around the world and raised questions about European countries’ response to the threat from Islamist extremists.

IMAGE: A Belgian forensic police takes pictures during police operations in Schaerbeek following Tuesday's bomb attacks. Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters

The Islamic State militant group, which claimed responsibility for the Brussels bombings, also took credit for coordinated attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people at cafes, a sports stadium and concert hall.

Meanwhile, led by King Philippe, Belgians also observed a minute of silence on the third and final day of mourning for the 31 people killed and 300 injured in attacks.

IMAGE: A mourner lights a candle in Trafalgar Square during a candlelit vigil in support of the victims of the recent terror attacks in Brussels. Photograph: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images

Earlier on Thursday, Belgium’s interior and justice ministers offered to resign over a failure to track an Islamic State militant expelled by Turkey as a suspected fighter and who blew himself up at BrusselsAirport.

Harrowing new footage of the moments after the Zaventem airport attack meanwhile emerged on Belgian television, showing a lone baby left crying in the wreckage next to the lifeless body of a woman.