Paris attacks: Ninth person arrested in Brussels

The 30-year-old Belgian national is facing a number of terror-related charges

A Belgian special forces police officer patrols a street this week. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Brussels police have arrested a man in connection with the November 13th militant attacks in Paris which killed 130 people, federal prosecutors said on Thursday, bringing the total number of arrests in Belgium to nine.

The man, named as Abdoullah C, a 30-year-old Belgian national, was arrested on Tuesday. Prosecutors did not announce his arrest then in order to avoid alerting potential accomplices, a spokesman said.

"This person is suspected to have had contact several times with Hasna Ait Boulahcen, Abdelhamid Abbaoud's cousin, in the period between the terrorist attacks and the events in Saint-Denis," the prosecutor said in a statement.

An investigating magistrate ordered the man to be detained on suspicion of terrorist murders and participation in a terrorist organisation, the prosecutor’s statement added.

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Boulahcen and Abaaoud were both killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis, France, days after the Paris attacks.

On Monday, police held five people in several searches in Brussels, but all were released later that day.

Reuters