Belgian police arrest ninth suspect over Paris attacks

Belgian police have arrested and charged a ninth suspect in connection with last month's Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.

Federal prosecutors have said that the suspect had telephoned Hasna Aitboulachen, the cousin of ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, several times after the attacks and before a police raid five days later in Saine-Saint-Denis which they both died.

A statement later identified the suspect as ‘Abdoullah C’, a Belgian national born in 1985, who was arrested on Tuesday on charges of “terrorist murders and participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation”.

The suicide bombings and mass shootings on 13 November were France’s deadliest-ever attacks, and the Belgian links to the shooters have sparked a sharp security increase in the European country.

Police are still searching for Brussels-born Salah Abdeslam, 26, who is believed to have participated in the Paris attacks before contacting friends in Belgium to drive him back over the border to Brussels.

A source close to the investigation told AFP last week that the key suspect had got through three police checks en route to Brussels.

Several people have since been charged with helping Abdeslam return to Brussels, along with several other implicated in the attacks and extremist Islamist groups. Hundreds of people have also been placed under house arrest across France.