Belgian Authorities May Have Found the Paris Attack Hideout

Investigators say the explosives used in the Paris attacks in November may have been made in an apartment in Brussels

French military patrol near the Eiffel Tower a day after a series of deadly attacks took place in Paris. (Photo: Reuters)

Belgian investigators believe the explosives used in the attacks in Paris in November may have been made in an apartment in Brussels that was rented under a false name and where a fingerprint of a key fugitive was found.

The police found material that could be used to make explosives, traces of explosive acetone peroxide and handmade belts during a raid on the apartment on December 10, federal prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.

Prosecutors investigating Belgian links to the Paris attacks said the apartment – in the district of Schaerbeek – had been rented under a false name that might have been used by a person already in custody in connection with the Paris attacks.

(Photo: AP) 

The find adds to indications that the November 13 shooting and suicide bomb attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed, were at least partially planned in Belgium.

Two of the attackers had been living in Brussels. The Belgian authorities have arrested 10 people, including one who rented the apartment in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek.

Investigators also found a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, the brother of one of the attackers, who returned from Paris the morning after the attacks and has still not been found.

Many of those arrested in Belgium have links to Abdeslam, including two who drove from Brussels hours after the attacks to pick him up and another who drove him from one part of Brussels to Schaerbeek after his return.