Brussels attacks: Nine held in Belgium and Germany

Belgian police have arrested seven people and German authorities arrested two in separate investigations into IS suicide bombings in Brussels, while authorities in France said they thwarted a militant plot there “that was at an advanced stage”.

IS suicide bombers hit Brussels Airport and a metro train on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people and wounding 270 in the worst such attack in Belgian history. Investigators believe the attacks were carried out by the same IS cell responsible for gun and bomb attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November.

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said six people were held during searches in the Brussels neighbourhoods of Schaerbeek in the north and Jette in the west, as well as in the centre of the Belgian capital. Public broadcaster RTBF said a seventh man was arrested in the Forest borough of Brussels early yesterday.