Eight arrested in Belgium anti-terror raids

BRUSSELS — Eight people are arrested in Brussels following counterterror raids as part of an investigation into what one source says Monday appeared to be preparations for an attack.

All eight are arrested Sunday in Molenbeek, an immigrant district in the Belgian capital linked to the Paris and Brussels terror attacks, the federal prosecutor’s office says.

“In all, eight persons were arrested and taken for questioning,” the prosecutor’s office says in a statement, adding the arrests were not connected to the Paris or Brussels attacks.

A source close to the probe says investigators suspected an attack was in preparation.

The prosecutor’s office says no explosives were found in the raids.

The arrests take place following raids in Molenbeek as well as in Geraardsbergen and Mechelen, both in northern Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium.

Molenbeek was home to several members of the cell that carried out the November 13, 2015, attacks in Paris and the March 2016 suicide bombings in Brussels.

— AFP