Police have detained eight people during investigations into an alleged terrorist plot in Belgium, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Raids were conducted late on Monday on homes in the capital Brussels, the port city of Antwerp and the border town of Eupen.
Prosecutors said that at least five of those detained were suspected of planning to “commit a terrorist attack in Belgium”.
The target of the attack was not identified.
A judicial source told AFP those arrested were “very young radicalised people” suspected of belonging to an extremist movement.
The prosecutor cited two inquiries, one led by federal police in Brussels and the other by an investigating magistrate in Antwerp.
Both led to house raids on Monday.
“There are links between the two files, but further research will have to show to what extent the two groups were intertwined,” prosecutors said.
The Antwerp inquiry led to five arrests, including one in Eupen near the German border, and the Brussels probe led to three arrests.
In both cases the suspects have been detained but not yet charged.
The parallel investigations triggered a raid in Molenbeek, an inner-city Brussels district with a large North African population that has been the focus of previous terror probes.
The investigations in Antwerp and Brussels initially focused on “two young adults suspected of violent radicalism”, state broadcaster RTBF reported.
Between 2016 and 2018, Belgium faced a wave of deadly extremist attacks.
The country's biggest ever criminal trial of nine suspects accused of taking part in the March 2016 suicide bombings that killed 32 people is under way in Brussels.
The bombings were carried out by the same extremist cell that killed 130 people during the November 2015 attacks in Paris, helping with planning from hideouts in Belgium.
Monday's arrests mark the first such terror inquiry to be made public in Belgium since November, when a Brussels man was charged with terrorism offences after stabbing a police officer to death.
Officials had however warned of the continued danger.
The threat of terrorism “still remains, with planned attacks that are regularly prevented by our services”, Belgian federal police chief Eric Snoeck told RTBF on Friday.
In its latest annual report published in January, Belgium's domestic intelligence service noted “a worrying rise in the number of increasingly young people falling into extremist radicalisation” of a religious and politically extreme nature.
The OCAM national threat analysis centre said on Tuesday that Belgium's terror alert level would remain at “medium”, or a level of two out of a maximum of four.
Agencies contributed to this report
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The Dictionary of Animal Languages
Heidi Sopinka
Scribe
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
IPL 2018 FINAL
Sunrisers Hyderabad 178-6 (20 ovs)
Chennai Super Kings 181-2 (18.3 ovs)
Chennai win by eight wickets
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
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GAC GS8 Specs
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6 UNDERGROUND
Director: Michael Bay
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
2.5 / 5 stars
Biog
Age: 50
Known as the UAE’s strongest man
Favourite dish: “Everything and sea food”
Hobbies: Drawing, basketball and poetry
Favourite car: Any classic car
Favourite superhero: The Hulk original
