Confusion Over 'Captured' Bomb Suspect
Najim Laachraoui has reportedly been captured by police
The 25-year-old was reported to have been
arrested in the city's Anderlecht district, according to media outlets
such as DH newspaper's website and broadcaster RTL.
About an hour later, however, Belgian media
reports said the suspect arrested was not Laachraoui.
He had been named in Belgian media reports as
the third man filmed on CCTV at the airport, alongside two other bombers -
brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, both of whom killed themselves in the
attacks.
A police photo of Najim Laachraoui
At least 14 other people were also killed when
the twin blasts ripped through the airport's departure hall but
Laachraoui was reported to have fled the scene after his bomb failed to
detonate.
The federal prosecutor is preparing a press
briefing for later this morning.
Laachraoui, previously known as Soufiane
Kayal, is also suspected of making the bombs used in November's Paris
massacres, after his DNA was allegedly found on suicide belts used in the
Bataclan Theatre and the Stade de France.
Prosecutors had said on Monday - the day before
the Brussels attacks - that he had travelled to Hungary in September with Salah
Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris attacks, who was captured by police
last week.
Laachraoui, born and raised in Brussels, is
also believed to have travelled to Syria in February 2013.
Sky's Europe Correspondent Mark Stone says:
"His arrest will be seen as major breakthrough, a very very significant
development for authorities here."
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