Timeline: five UK arrests allegedly linked to Paris and Brussels attacks
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Version 0 of 1. 13 November 2015 Islamic extremists launch coordinated gun and suicide attacks across Paris, targeting restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and the Stade de France. The assault is the worst terrorist attack in Europe in a decade, killing 130 people as well as seven of the attackers. 14 November Islamic State claims responsibility for the attacks. 18 November Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, who is suspected of masterminding the deadly attacks in Paris, dies along with his female cousin in a police raid in the Paris suburb of St-Denis. 21 November The Belgian government imposes a security lockdown on Brussels, including the closure of shops, schools and public transportation, due to information about potential terrorist attacks. 22 November Counter-terror police raid 19 properties in Molenbeek, a district in Brussels synonymous with Islamic fundamentalism, making a number of arrests. The neighbourhood is home to many of the Paris attackers. 23 November A street cleaner stumbles across an explosive vest containing bolts and the same type of explosive used in the Paris attacks among a pile of rubble in the town of Montrouge, south of Paris. By this stage, four suspects have been charged with terrorism offences. 26 November The Belgian terror threat is lowered to the second highest level in Brussels, with officials saying a threat is “possible and likely”. 10 December A fingerprint from the prime Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam is discovered during a search of an apartment in Schaerbeek, Brussels. Prosecutors believe the property served as a bomb factory for the Paris attacks. Three handmade belts that could have been intended to transport explosives, bomb-making equipment, and traces of TATP explosive residue are also found. 13 January 2016 Belgian investigators identify three safehouses used by suspects to prepare for the Paris attacks. By this stage, 10 suspects have been arrested. 15 March Mohamed Belkaid, an Algerian living illegally in Belgium, is killed by police during a raid on an apartment in the Brussels suburb of Forest. Investigators find a stock of ammunition and an Islamic State flag. 18 March Salah Abdeslam is wounded in the leg and captured by Belgian police during a raid in Molenbeek after four months on the run. Two other men are also arrested. 22 March Brussels is rocked by devastating suicide bombings that kill 32 people. Two men, identified as Ibrahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, blow themselves up at Zaventem airport. Bakraoui’s brother Khalid blows himself up at Maelbeek metro station, close to the EU headquarters. 8 April Mohamed Abrini, a key suspect wanted in connection with November’s Paris attacks, is arrested in Belgium. The 31-year-old had been on Europe’s most wanted list since being identified as one of two suspects seen on CCTV travelling in a car two days before the attacks. 9 April Belgian authorities say Abrini is the “man in the hat” seen alongside the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Zaventem airport. 15 April Four men and one woman are arrested in Birmingham and at Gatwick airport over suspected British links to the terrorists who attacked Paris and Brussels. It has previously been reported that Abaaoud and Abrini both travelled to the UK before the Paris attacks, possibly to Birmingham. |