Brussels raid over Paris attacks: Manhunt enters second day

Belgian police are hunting for suspects for a second day after a deadly anti-terror raid in Brussels, linked to November's jihadist attacks in Paris. A man armed with a Kalashnikov was shot dead and four officers were wounded during Tuesday's operation in the suburb of Forest, an official said.

The area around the apartment in Forest was blocked off

Brussels has since been on high alert, with police said to be searching for suspects who may have fled the raid. The Paris attacks - involving militants from Brussels - left 130 people dead.

There was relief for local residents as local schools and kindergartens were evacuated safely

The so-called Islamic State (IS) group has said it carried out the attacks. French police also took part in Tuesday's operation in Brussels. One of the officers wounded in the raid was a French policewoman, officials said.

Police went to search an apartment in the southern suburb of Forest on Tuesday afternoon. "During this operation, one or several people opened fire on the police as they came through the door," the federal prosecutor's office said.
Three officers were injured then and a fourth in a later exchange of gunfire, it said. "A suspect armed with a Kalashnikov" was also killed at around 18:00 in the street outside the flat, the prosecutors' statement said.

The Associated Press news agency quotes prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt as saying that several people fled the scene when the gunshots first rang out, and it was not yet clear if all were bystanders, or if some were suspects.

Belgian media reports say police are searching for two more suspects after the raid. The dead man has not yet been identified. However, a prosecutor's spokesman had earlier made clear it was not Salah Abdeslam - one of two suspects still on the run after the 13 November attacks in Paris.

French police sources had said earlier that he was not the target of Tuesday's raid. Belgium's De Standaard newspaper (in Dutch) quotes its sources as saying that investigators had been expecting to raid a safe house used in connection with the Paris attacks.

They had not expected the flat to be occupied, as its water and electricity had been disconnected for some time.