Paris attack suspect Abdeslam shot and captured in Brussels

Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was shot in the leg and arrested on Friday in anti-terrorism raids in the Molenbeek area of Brussels, Belgium. 

Thierry Werts, of the federal prosecutor's office, said Abdeslam was among five people arrested during three raids in the Belgian capital. He and another suspect were treated in hospital for their wounds and released early on Saturday into police custody for questioning,

Brussels' mayor Yvan Mayeur said: "The two terrorist suspects have left the Saint-Pierre hospital." Both are to be questioned before facing a hearing on their extradition to France in connection with the November attacks in Paris.

Abdeslam is believed to have played a key role in the 13 November attacks in the French capital by the Islamic State (IS) group that killed 130 people.

"The battle against terrorism does not end tonight, even though this is a victory," French President Francois Hollande told a news conference in Brussels with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

"I think of the victims of November 13, because Salah Abdeslam was directly linked to the preparation, the organisation and unfortunately the perpetration of these attacks."

"These successes are extremely important in the battle for democracy against this abominable form of extremism," Michel added.

Hollande said he expected Abdeslam would be extradited to France as soon as possible.

Police said Abdeslam, 26, had been lightly wounded before his arrest. Le Monde newspaper said that grenade explosions could be heard during the operation.

A witness told the AFP news agency the operation began at around 4.30pm local time (3.30pm GMT) when dozens of police cars swooped into Molenbeek.

"I heard about three or four shots fired, but they were muffled as if taking place indoors," said Karim.

Earlier on Friday, police said they had found Abdeslam's fingerprints in an apartment in the Belgian capital that was raided on Tuesday.

"We can confirm that fingerprints of Salah Abdeslam were found in the apartment in [the Brussels district of] Forest," a spokesman for federal prosecutors Eric Van Der Sypt told AFP.

Reports suggested police believed Abdeslam may have been one of two men who slipped through a police cordon after another man was shot dead in the Forest neighbourhood on Tuesday.

Investigations have shown that several of those involved in the assaults in Paris last November lived in Brussels, where the attacks were planned.

The French-Moroccan, whose older brother Brahim blew himself up in Paris, fled across the border to Belgium hours after the massacre and was considered one of Europe's most wanted men.

A firefight erupted on Tuesday after Belgian and French police searched the Forest property as part of continued investigations into the Paris attacks.

The officers went to the apartment believing it was rented under the same false identity as a hideout in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi used by the Paris attackers.

Prosecutors also said that the man killed in the Forest shootout was very likely a suspect wanted by police in connection with the Paris attacks.

Investigations show that "the so-called Samir Bouzir, against whom a wanted notice was issued, most probably is the Algerian national Mohamed Belkaid" killed on Tuesday, a statement said.

Investigators in December determined that a fake identity card in Bouzir's name was used to wire 750 euros ($800) from a Brussels Western Union office to the cousin of attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud four days after the massacre in the French capital.

Abaaoud and his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, as well as another Paris attacks suspect, died in a hail of bullets north of the French capital on 18 November.

Meanwhile Belgian TV channel VRT said that Belkaid, who was living illegally in Belgium, was listed as a volunteer to commit a suicide bomb attack.

Contacted by AFP, Belgium's federal prosecutor declined to comment on the report.

Police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle and an IS flag near Belkaid after he was shot.

Asked whether one of the suspects who escaped the shootout was Abdeslam, a source close to the investigation said: "We can obviously ask ourselves the question."

Another Abdeslam fingerprint was found in December in a different Brussels apartment, where investigators believe the fugitive hid for three weeks immediately following the attacks.

Belgium has been at the centre of the investigation into the Paris attacks almost from day one.

The ringleader, IS member Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was also from Brussels. He was killed in a raid in Paris shortly after the attacks.

Both had links to the largely immigrant district of Molenbeek which was targeted by authorities after the attacks.

Brahim Abdeslam, Salah's brother, was buried in a discreet ceremony on Thursday in Brussels.

Another of the Paris attackers, Bilal Hadfi, was buried quietly in the same cemetery in the northwest of the city last week.