Search for Paris attackers continues

Fingerprints of Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam have been found in a Brussels flat raided this week, Belgian prosecutors say.

State broadcaster RTBF says he may have escaped during Tuesday’s police raid, in which one suspect was shot dead.

The raid was linked to last year’s Paris attacks in which 130 people died.

Abdeslam, a French national born in Brussels, has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the attacks, claimed by Islamic State militants.

“We can confirm that fingerprints of Salah Abdeslam were found in the apartment,” said Eric Van Der Sypt, spokesman for Belgian federal prosecutors.

He declined to provide further details “in the interest of the investigation”.

Other media outlets reported that Abdeslam’s DNA had also been found in the flat.

Meanwhile, RTBF said that “according to our information, it is more than likely that he (Abdeslam) is one of the two individuals who escaped during the shootout”.

Four officers were wounded when Belgian and French police raided the flat in the southern Brussels district of Forest on Tuesday.

Later that day, Van Der Sypt revealed that “police were fired at” during the operation.

The suspect who was shot dead was identified as Algerian national Mohamed Belkaid. He was killed by snipers while trying to fire at police from an apartment window.

Officials said Belkaid was born in 1980 and had been living in Belgium illegally. He was not known to the authorities except for one case of robbery.

Police are still hunting two other suspects who are believed to have been in the apartment.