Donald Trump says Muslims are not reporting extremists

US Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, said Muslims were not helping to prevent attacks such as those that killed at least 30 people in Belgium, drawing a rebuke from Muslim groups.

In an interview broadcast on ITV television, Trump was asked what his message was for British Muslims, after Tuesday’s bombings in Brussels.

“When they see trouble, they have to report it. They are not reporting it. They are absolutely not reporting it and that’s a big problem,” Trump said.

His comments were countered by British interior minister, Theresa May, who said he was “just plain wrong” to suggest Muslims in Britain were failing to report suspicious activity by extremists.

Trump, the front-runner in the race to be the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election, has made a series of controversial statements during his campaign. His supporters see him as someone who speaks uncomfortable truths, but he has outraged many others in the United States and around the world.

Graphic shows timeline of terrorist attacks from Paris to Brussels.

Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, said it was “a disgrace” that one of the suspects behind last November’s attacks in Paris had been found after a long manhunt in an area of Brussels where he had grown up.

“He was in his neighbourhood, where he grew up, and nobody even turned him in, and supposedly this is retribution for that. It’s a disgrace,” he said.

Trump said there were signs that an attack by suspected Muslim extremists, in California in December, which killed 14 people, could have been stopped.

“A lot of people in the community knew they were going to do it, because in their apartment they had bombs all over the floor ... and they didn’t report them,” he said. “I don’t know what it is. It’s like they’re protecting each other.”