1st LD: Belgian media withdraw reports on arrest of key suspect in Brussels bombings
Xinhua, March 23, 2016 Adjust font size:
Belgium media which had reported earlier Wednesday the arrest of a key suspect in Tuesday's bomb attacks in Brussels, said the detainee was, in fact, not Najim Laachraoui.
La Derniere Heure newspaper, which had been the first to report the story, said the man arrested in Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, had been misidentified.
Federal prosecutors have yet to confirm all the reports, but announced they would hold a news conference at 1200 GMT.
La Derniere Heure had said Laachraoui's DNA was reportedly found on explosive devices involved in the Paris attacks in November.
He was also suspected of renting apartments under a fake name, which were served as hideout for Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam, the newspaper had added.
According to the report, Laachraoui had left Belgium for Syria in February 2013. He had been stopped by the police on Austria-Hungary border last September when travelling with Abdeslam and Mohamed Belkaid, with a false identification. Endi