Brussels Schools to Be Shut Monday Over High Terror Threat

Brussels will remain largely shut down on Monday morning as the city remains on its highest terrorism alert level following last week’s attacks in Paris, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Sunday.

He said: “We are talking about the threat that several individuals with arms and explosives would launch an attack, perhaps in several locations at the same time”.

The security lockdown in Brussels is being reviewed.

The risk is “serious and imminent” amid reports that Salah Abdeslam is in the Belgian capital.

He said he was aware the situation was “very hard for everyone”. In addition, the Grand Place central square, minutes from the hotel, was evacuated.

“In Turkey, police arrested a Belgian man suspected of scouting out sites for the Paris attacks”.

Speaking from Kuala Lumpur, President Barack Obama said the world would not accept the extremists’ attacks on civilians as the “new normal”, and vowed the United States and its global partners would not relent in the fight against the Islamic militants.

Moscow announced separately it had killed 11 IS-linked fighters in its volatile North Caucasus region.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said IS must be destroyed at all costs.

Commuters trying to get to work on Monday were expected to suffer delays as a result of the metro closure, though a few companies had already indicated they were ready for staff to work from home.

Belgium and its capital are no strangers to Islamist violence.

The country’s security forces were searching for others as well as Salah Abdeslam, who is wanted over the Paris terror attacks.

The suspected ringleader of those attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, died in a massive police raid in Paris on Wednesday along with his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, reportedly a one-time party girl who turned to radical Islam about six months ago.

The decision to put Brussels on the highest alert came early Saturday as authorities frantically searched for Abdeslam, who is believed to have played a key role in the November 13 attacks in France.

Brahim died when he blew himself up outside a bar in Paris. He is known to have crossed into Belgium the day after the attacks.

“That way he can give us the answers we seek, our family and the families of the victims”, he said. His brother, Mohamed Abdeslam, went on Belgian TV and urged him to surrender, saying he would rather see him “in prison than in a cemetery”.