Belgium to reduce terror threat level

In a second raid in the southern Berlin district of Britz, police found one suspect’s auto which they think may have explosives in it. A spokesman said the police are evacuating 16 residential buildings in the area.

Schools and much of the Brussels metro system reopened on Wednesday as the Belgian capital started to return to normal after four days of lockdown, but troops on the street were a reminder it remains on the highest alert.

Didier Nkoy Balengola, another father, said he had explained to his children that “there are some bad men who for no reason want to hurt innocent people” but that he had confidence in the police.

The threat level is expected to be in place until at least Monday unless there are significant developments, like the capturing of some suspects linked to the Paris attacks on November 13, who are believed to be in Belgium.

Belgium has charged five people with terror offenses since the November 13 assaults in the French capital that left 130 people dead. He says “I don’t want to be a political “trophy” exhibited by a government that did nothing for months, for years”.

“There were indications that there would be attacks on Sunday evening and they did not materialize”, Jambon said, adding that otherwise “you don’t impose terror level 4”, the highest possible.

The federal prosecutor’s office on Tuesday also issued an global warrant for Mohamed Abrini, who is being tracked by both Belgian and French police.

Police raided the apartment November 18, and three people were killed: the suspected orchestrator of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud; a female cousin or friend and one other person. Several museums in Paris closed in the days after the attacks.

Paris has also been stepping up efforts to create an global coalition to fight ISIS, which has declared a “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq, and Valls warned the jihadist group was also a threat to fellow European powers Germany and Italy. He didn’t, however, specify what the charges were or if they were linked to the attacks.

Belgian police arrest 16 during operations following Paris attacks, but did not find Salah Abdeslam, the Brussels man suspected of playing key role in France. But Reynders said he is confident Abdeslam will be captured.

He said his brothers had shown no signs of radicalization.

Emergency measures have also been taken in France while the manhunt continues.

President Francois Hollande has been rallying global support for the enhanced military campaign against IS, winning the support of the United States during a visit to Washington on Tuesday.

The analysis “leads us to believe that Abaaoud returned to the scene of the crimes after the attack carried out on the people sitting at tables at restaurants and while the BRI (elite police) were intervening at the Bataclan”, prosecutor Francois Molins said.