The residents of Belgium’s capital city woke up Sunday to a second day of a lockdown on its subway system and deserted streets patrolled by security forces. Sunday is also the second day for the highest threat level to be issued for Brussels. Officials are meeting Sunday afternoon to determine if any new measures are needed. 

Interior Minister Jan Jambon said “There is a real threat, but we are doing everything possible day and night to face up to this situation.” 

Belgium authorities warned citizens against public gatherings Saturday, as law enforcement agencies pressed their hunt for the perpetrators of the November 13 Paris massacres.

Prime Minister Charles Michel warned that “several individuals with arms and explosives could launch an attack” in one or more places in and around the capital. Authorities told VOA’s Jamie Dettmer that Michel’s warning was based on “quite precise information,” including the possibility that chief Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam could be planning a suicide attack in the city.

It also follows the discovery of a weapons stash at a Brussels home occupied by a suspect arrested in connection with the Paris attacks.

The U.S. Embassy in Brussels urged Americans to shelter in place and remain at home. “If you must go out, avoid large crowds,” it said in a statement.

Authorities throughout Europe have been working feverishly to track down Abdeslam, who was last seen crossing into Belgium on November 14, a few hours after the Paris attacks that killed 129 people and wounded hundreds of others. 

The suspected architect of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed Wednesday in a police raid in a northern Paris suburb.

In a separate development Saturday, authorities in Turkey said they arrested a Belgian citizen and two Syrians suspected of “aiding and abetting” Islamic State terrorists. The Dogan news agency said the Belgian citizen of Moroccan descent is accused of carrying out reconnaissance for the attack in Paris. 

Belgian authorities raided nine homes Thursday in several parts of Brussels, detaining nine people and seizing explosives and weapons. Some of the searches were in the Molenbeek neighborhood where Abdeslam lived along with his brother Ibrahim, who blew himself up outside one of the cafes attacked in Paris. 

Some of the raids were connected to Bilal Hadfi, another terrorist who detonated an explosives vest that killed him outside the French stadium that was attacked. 

Some material for this report came from AP and AFP.
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