A Belgian bomb disposal expert in heavy protection gear advances on a suspicious object during an operation in Schaerbeek on March 25, 2016. Photo by Julien Warnand/EPA
One person was wounded and detained in a major police operation in the northern Brussels borough of Schaerbeek on Friday, Belgian public broadcaster RTBF quoted the local mayor as saying.Bernard Clerfayt said the person was linked to bomb attacks in Brussels and to a plot near Paris foiled on Thursday. It was reported earlier that six people were detained in terrorism investigations overnight in Brussels, two in Germany, and one in Paris.Heavily armed police and military with trucks cordoned off an area around a major intersection in Schaerbeek and three blasts were heard, which Clerfayt said were controlled explosions.Broadcaster RTL quoted a witness as saying police approached a person at a bus stop and asked the person to remove a jacket."No doubt to check if the person had an explosives belt strapped on," the witness told RTL. The witness said it was not clear if the person had been wounded, but was lying on the ground and talking to the police.RTBF cited unidentified sources saying the person arrested had not responded to police orders and had been found to be in possession of a suitcase containing explosive substances.Other eyewitnesses reported seeing police shoot at a man armed with a machine gun who had emerged from an underpass, hitting him in the legs, reported the BBC.Belgian police believe one of the seven people arrested was a suspected accomplice of the suicide bomber who killed about 20 people on the Brussels metro on Tuesday, a person familiar with the investigation said."We have strong indications that this is the suspect who was hunted for the last couple of days. The identification is still ongoing," he said, referring to man caught on CCTV entering Maelbeek station with presumed bomber Khalid El Bakraoui.The second man also carried a bag and it is not known whether he was also supposed to blow himself up on the metro.Among those people arrested in Belgium, none appear to be the "third man" caught on Brussels airport CCTV with the two bombers who struck there, the source said. One bomber was Bakraoui's elder brother Brahim and the other, investigators believe, was Najim Laachraoui, though the source said that was still unconfirmed.Laachraoui's wanted notice was removed from police websites on Friday, indicating he was no longer being sought.Follow VICE News on Twitter: @vicenews
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