Belgian police kill terror suspect after French tip-off

 

Belgian police kill terror suspect after French tip-off

http://www.france24.com/en/20130327-belgium-police-kill-terror-suspect-french-tip-off-anti-terrorism

 

Belgian police on Tuesday killed a man suspected of terrorist links after a

motorway chase and shoot-out, acting on a tip-off from French authorities.

The suspect was a known figure in the Brussels criminal underworld, local

officials said.

By News Wires (text)

 

Belgian police shot dead a man of Algerian origin suspected of terrorist

links after a motorway pursuit Tuesday, moving in after an investigation

that was triggered by a tip-off from French officials.

 

In a statement issued early Wednesday, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls

praised Belgium for its anti-terrorism cooperation.

 

The shoot-out took place in the early afternoon on the motorway linking the

capital Brussels and the southern city of Tournai as police chased the man

down, the Belga news agency reported.

 

The suspect was a known figure in the Brussels criminal underworld, said

Tournai prosecutor Marie-Claude Maertens, the agency reported.

 

When police decided to move in to arrest him, he refused repeated calls to

stop and then drove at police officers, opening fire at them. The police

fired back, fatally wounding him, she added.

 

Later Tuesday, the federal prosecutors office told reporters that Belgian

investigators had opened their investigation into the 30-year-old man in

response to two French requests for information about him late last year.

 

French investigators had said they suspected he belonged to a criminal gang

with terrorist ties.

 

The Belgian investigation established that the man was buying military

equipment including weapons, bullet-proof clothing and telescopic sights.

 

After police linked him to an armed robbery at a restaurant in Brussels last

Thursday, they decided to move in and arrest him.

 

Following the motorway shoot-out, police searched the suspect's home in

Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels. There, they found weapons, ammunition and

explosives.

 

Police will display the arsenal they found at the suspect's flat on

Wednesday. Officers also arrested a woman and were questioning her Tuesday

night, Belga reported.

 

From Paris, Valls said early Wednesday that he had spoken to his Belgian

counterpart Joelle Milquet after the shooting.

 

He praised Belgium for its "determination to pursue bilateral cooperation in

the long and difficult struggle against terrorism".

 

And he confirmed that the two countries had been collaborating closely on

the operation to investigate the suspect, with France's internal security

anti-terrorism service, the DCRI, involved.

 

For several hours during the search of the suspect's house, police sealed

off the road outside his home and evacuated residents while they checked for

booby traps. They let people back into their homes later that evening,

RTL-TVI television reported.

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