bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

An explosive suicide vest has been found dumped near Paris and the mobile phone of a fugitive believed to have taken part in the attacks on the city on November 13 was detected in two locations in the city, sources close to the investigation said.
A French police official said the vest contained bolts and the same type of explosive used in the attacks. The discovery comes amid the hunt for Salah Abdeslam, who is believed to have been among the attackers but failed to detonate his vest.
The official said the vest — without a detonator — was found Monday by a street cleaner in a pile of rubble in Chatillon-Montrouge, just south of the capital.
The official said laboratory analysis showed that the explosive material was TATP — used in seven other explosive vests in the attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds of others. The official wasn’t authorised to speak publicly and couldn’t be identified by name.
Watch: Hunt for Paris attacks suspect intensifies

In addition, the vest was found in the same zone where Abdeslam’s cellphone was geolocalised. Abdeslam was stopped by police in northern France after the attack but allowed to continue his journey.
The 26-year-old barkeeper Salah Abdeslam, 26, apparently returned to Brussels from Paris hours after the attacks and is still at large.
Abdeslam's mobile phone was detected after the attacks in the 18th district in the north of Paris, near an abandoned car that he had rented, and then later in Chatillon in the south, the source said on Monday.
One theory was that Abdeslam had intended to blow himself up in the 18th district but had abandoned the plan, although it was not clear why.
“Maybe he had a technical problem with his explosive belt,” a police source said.
Fearing an imminent threat of a Paris-style attack, Belgium extended a maximum security alert in Brussels for a week but said the metro system and schools could re-open on Wednesday.

“We are still confronted with the threat we were facing yesterday,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said. Potential targets remained shopping areas and public transport.
Belgium has been at the heart of investigations into the Paris attacks since French law enforcement bodies said two of the suicide bombers had lived there. Three people have been charged in Belgium with terrorist offences, including two who travelled back with Abdeslam from Brussels.
As authorities tried to establish Abdeslam's movements and whereabouts, a source said he travelled through Italy in August with a companion, but his presence caused no alarm because he was not a wanted man at the time.
His companion was Ahmet Dahmani, a Belgian man of Moroccan origin who was arrested in Turkey last week on suspicion of involvement in the Paris attacks, the investigative source said.
In Belgium, prosecutors said they had charged a fourth person with terrorist offences linked to the Paris attacks.
They released all 15 others detained in police raids on Sunday. Two of five people detained on Monday were also released while the other three had their custody prolonged.
Soldiers patrolled the streets of Brussels, which has been in lockdown since Saturday.
The metro, museums, most cinemas and many shops were shut on Monday in the usually bustling EU capital where many staff have opted to work from home. There was also no school or university for almost 300,000 students.
On the Grand Place, a historic central square that usually draws crowds of tourists, an armoured military vehicle was parked under an illuminated Christmas tree.
NATO, which raised its alert level after the Paris attacks, said its headquarters in the city were open, but some staff had been asked to work from home. EU institutions were also open with soldiers patrolling outside.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon told RTL radio, however, that the capital was still operating. “Apart from the closed metro and schools, life goes on in Brussels,” he said.
City buses were running normally and many shops in the suburbs were open.
Workers were also setting up stalls for the city centre Christmas market, which is due to open on Friday, and organisers of the Davis Cup tennis final between Belgium and Britain in the city of Ghent, 55 km from the capital, said it would go ahead this weekend.
French jets from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier struck Islamic State targets in Iraq on Monday while Britain offered France the use of an air base in Cyprus to hit the militants behind the Paris attacks.
French President Francois Hollande met British Prime Minister David Cameron in Paris as part of efforts to rally support for the fight against Islamic State, which claimed the November 13 attacks. Hollande is also due to visit Washington and Moscow this week.
Cameron offered air-to-air refuelling services and said he was convinced Britain should carry out air strikes alongside France and would be recommending that Britain's parliament vote through such measures.


Lone surviving attacker in Paris massacre guilty of murder, jailed for life

Suspected Paris attack accomplices go on trial in Belgium over 2015 killing spree

Paris attacks suspect cries as he apologises to victims, asks for forgiveness

French surgeon tries to sell X-ray of 2015 Bataclan concert victim as digital artwork

Paris terror attacks

French police find abandoned suicide vest, as hunt for failed attacker intensifies

epa05039067 Trash is piled up on a street corner where an explosive belt without detonator was found in a bin in Montrouge, near Paris, France, 23 November 2015. A device found discarded in a Paris suburb is an explosive suicide belt, French prosecution sources confirmed to German news agency dpa. Police have spent a week looking for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, a French resident of Brussels who is believed to have taken part in the Paris terrorist attacks on 13 November 2015. He was reportedly brought back to the Brussels area by two acquaintances. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

This undated file photo provided by the Belgian Federal Police shows 26-year old Salah Abdeslam, who is wanted by police in connection with recent terror attacks in Paris, as a police investigation continues on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015. The notice, released on the Belgian Federal Police website warns anyone seeing Salah Abdeslam, should consider him dangerous. (Belgian Federal Police via AP)

epa05039066 French police officers stand guard in a street after an explosive belt without detonator was found in a bin in Montrouge, near Paris, France, 23 November 2015. A device found discarded in a Paris suburb is an explosive suicide belt, French prosecution sources confirmed to German news agency dpa. Police have spent a week looking for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, a French resident of Brussels who is believed to have taken part in the Paris terrorist attacks on 13 November 2015. He was reportedly brought back to the Brussels area by two acquaintances. EPA/IAN LANGSDON

The street corner where an explosive vest was found near Paris on Monday. Photo: EPA

News

World