A shootout with Belgian police that led to the capture of Europe's most-wanted man may have been criminal but it was not terrorism, his lawyer has argued.

After a four-month manhunt, police have captured the top fugitive in last year’s deadly Paris attacks in the same Brussels neighbourhood where he grew up.

A Belgian prosecutor says the fingerprints of Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam have been found in a Brussels apartment that police raided earlier this week.