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Belgian police arrest three over Paris attacks

130 people were killed in the attacks in Paris on 13 November
130 people were killed in the attacks in Paris on 13 November

Belgian police arrested three people in a Brussels suburb during a new raid linked to the investigation into the November Paris attacks, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the raid, which took place in Uccle, was carried out "in the context of the investigation that the federal prosecutor opened following the attacks in Paris on November 13" which left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded.

The investigating judge will decide tomorrow whether to continuing holding the three, it said, without giving any further details.

The prosecutor's office announced earlier that Belgium had charged two new suspects over the 22 March Brussels airport and metro bombings that left 32 people dead and hundreds wounded.

Prosecutors identified the men as Smail F, born in 1984, and Ibrahim F, born in 1988.

The prosecutor said there were "indications" the two men could be linked to an address in the Etterbeek district of Brussels which was raided last week.

At the time, police said they found nothing at the address but reports later suggested that two men, one of whom blew himself up in the Maalbeek metro station, may have stayed there or used it.

The second man, later identified by the authorities as Oasama K, was apparently also carrying a bomb but for reasons unknown did not go through with the attack.

Three suicide bombers - two at the airport and one at the metro station in central Brussels - killed 32 people in Belgium's worst terror attack which claimed by the so-called Islamic State group.

Investigators have found extensive links between the Brussels and November Paris attacks, with many of the same people involved and linked to IS in Syria.

At the weekend, the authorities said they believed the Brussels cell originally planned to stage another attack in France but the arrest of key Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam on 18 March, followed by a mass of police raids, caused them to switch and target Belgium.