Brussels on lockdown in fear of Paris style attacks

Brussels:Brussels was on terror lockdown Saturday in fear of a Paris-style attack with a gunman wanted over the deadly rampage in the French capital a week ago still on the run.

The Belgian capital closed its metro system and shuttered shops and public buildings as a terror alert was raised to its highest level over reports of an "imminent threat" of a gun and bomb attack similar to the horror seen in Paris.

The city's historic Grand Place usually bustling with tourists was quiet with just some stragglers crossing the cobblestones as an armoured vehicle stood outside the imposing town hall.

Investigators are working around the clock to track down Belgian-born Salah Abdeslam one of the gunmen still on the loose after a coordinated wave of attacks on Parisian nightspots on November 13 that left 130 people dead.

Belgium-based jihadists are increasingly at the heart of the Paris probe and police have intensified raids in the city's immigrant districts in a rush to stop more Islamic State-inspired attacks that have killed hundreds around the world in recent weeks.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said authorities feared a "Paris-style" assault "with explosives and weapons at several locations".

The carnage in Paris has put all of Europe on edge amid fears that IS extremists can move operatives freely among target countries in an abuse of the EU's open-border Schengen zone system.

In Madrid fans for Saturday's El Clasico football match between Real Madrid and Barcelona were met by sniffer dogs mounted police and countless identity checks.

In Turkey police arrested a Belgian of Moroccan origin in connection with the Paris attacks in the resort of Antalya the site of this week's G20 summit along with two other suspects probably Syrians.

Ahmet Dahmani 26 is accused of helping to scout the Paris attacks and then preparing to illegally cross the Turkish-Syrian border to rejoin IS after arriving in Turkey from Amsterdam on his Belgian passport.

AFP