Belgium Makes 10th Arrest Over Paris Attack Amid New Year Terror Alert

It provided no further details, but French police reports cited by the Le Monde newspaper have said the Paris attackers were in cellphone contact with two numbers in Belgium during the night of the killings. Last year, Mr. Mayeur told RTBF television, 100,000 people turned out, and in current circumstances, he said, “we can’t guarantee that we can check everyone”. & Monday., both suspected of plotting an attack in Brussels on New Yr’s Eve, federal prosecutors stated.

On high alert: Brussels, which is home to the headquarters of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union, has been on high alert since the November 13 Paris attacks. Several of the perpetrators are thought to have been based in Belgium.

A grand jury has indicted the man who provided the guns used in the San Bernardino massacre on counts that include lying on documents when he bought the assault rifles and helping to plan earlier terror attacks…

Police also confiscated one suicide bomb vest, one bomb mechanism with ball bearings and one rucksack with bomb-making materials, the governor’s office said.

In June, four people were killed in an attack on a rally of the main pro-Kurdish party in Diyarbakir while in July, 33 people were killed in a suicide bombing against activists in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border.

Fireworks are not a traditional part of the celebrations, but they were part of a New Year frenzy a year ago on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, the capital’s most famous thoroughfare.

Around 50,000 people were expected to attend the fireworks display in Place de Brouckere.

Officials said the plot disclosed Tuesday was not directly linked to the wave of bombings and shootings on a Paris concert venue, bars, restaurants and the national stadium that left 130 people dead and many more wounded.

In Berlin, backpacks and fireworks will be prohibited and bags searched on the “fan mile” in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which has reportedly been closed off since Christmas.

Turkish authorities recently stepped up their own counterterrorism operations in advance of year-end celebrations by mounting a series of raids across the country and detaining scores of people trying to enter Turkey from Syria.

Berlin’s interior minister Frank Henkel encouraged party-goers to not allow fear to sour their celebratory mood.

Mayeur said that the police will be deployed downtown to safeguard the members of the public who want to be out on the streets.

Police in London are ramping up security to guard revellers out to watch the Mayor’s firework display.