Belgian police carried out raids throughout the tense capital, detaining 16 people as the city remained locked down under high alert on Monday.
In Paris, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he will ask for parliamentary approval for the UK to join airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria.
Raids across Brussels capped a tense day with hundreds of troops patrolling and authorities hunting for one or more suspected extremists, including Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive since being named a suspect in the November 13 Paris attacks.
The Belgian government chose to keep the capital on the highest state of alert into the start of the workweek after what it described as a “serious and imminent” threat, preventing a return to normal in the city that is also home to the European Union’s main institutions.
Federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said 19 raids were carried out yesterday in Molenbeek, home to many of the Paris attackers, and other boroughs of Brussels, and three raids were carried out in Charleroi. Abdeslam was not among those arrested. Van Der Sypt said no firearms or explosives were found.
Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon told the RTl network that Abdeslam “must have a lot of support on our territory. That’s why all these searches being conducted at the moment are important.”
Police fired two shots at a car that approached them as they searched a snack bar in Molenbeek, Van Der Sypt said. The vehicle escaped but was stopped later in Brussels, and a wounded person inside was arrested.