Paris attacks: Salah Abdeslam's fingerprints and DNA found at scene of gun battle at Brussels flat
Fingerprints belonging to Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslamhave been found at a Belgian flat where suspected Isis militants started a shoot-out with police.
One gunman was killed by a sniper but two other suspects are still at large after the raid in the Brussels district of Forest on Tuesday, where four officers were injured.
RTBF, Belgium’s public broadcaster, reported that Abdeslam may have been one of the men who fled.
Salah Abdeslam is still on the run after disappearing the day after the Paris attacks
“According to our information, it is more than likely that he is one of the two individuals who escaped during the shootout,”RTBF said on its website.
A spokesperson for Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed that Abdeslam's fingerprints were found at the property, while Belgian and French media outlets said his DNA was also found on a glass.
"The investigation continues day and night," a spokesperson said. "It is currently not possible to give any additional information to avoid causing any damage to the investigation."
The fugitive remains on the run after appearing to have removed his suicide vest and fled during the Paris attacks on 13 November, when his older brother Brahim blew himself up.
No sightings have been confirmed since friends gave him a lift to Brussels on that night, despite an international warrant for his arrest.
Prosecutors released two men they detained in the wake of Tuesday’s raid without charge on Wednesday, leaving the hunt on for the unidentified suspects.
The dead man was identified as Mohamed Belkaid, an Algerian living illegally in Belgium, whose only contact with authorities appeared to be a theft charge two years ago.
Belkaid, 35, was shot dead by a police sniper as he prepared to fire on police from a window, prosecutors said.
A Kalashnikov was found by his body, as well as a book on Salafism, the ultra-conservative strand of Islam violently adhered to by Isis and other extremist groups.
An Isis flag was discovered inside the flat, along with 11 loaders for Kalashnikovs and a large stock of ammunition.
The Belgian federal prosecutor said four Belgian and two French police officers came under fire from “at least two” militants as they burst into the flat, which they believed to be empty.
Four officers were slightly wounded and one of their guns and protection vests were left with bullet holes.
More than a hundred houses have been searched and 58 people arrested so far in Belgium’s investigation into the Paris attacks, where 130 people were murdered in shootings and suicide bombings.
