Brussels police opened fire on a car packed with explosives after a high-speed chase through the suburb of Molenbeek.

Shots were fired at the vehicle after it became stuck in traffic and the driver reversed into a police car.

Police cordoned off the area and told residents to remain indoors while military units checked for explosives.

Brussels police spokeswoman Dorothee Cattrysse said 400 to 500 people were being kept in the stores.

Armed forces personnel in the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels following the high-speed chase

A bomb disposal squad is deployed after Belgian police shot at a vehicle in the Molenbeek district

Bomb disposal experts were called to check the vehicle but there was no immediate confirmation that explosives had been found

Police cordoned off the area following the high-speed chase through the suburb of Molenbeek

Police spokeswoman Ine van Wymersch told Reuters: 'The man was driving suspiciously and failed to stop at a traffic light.

'When the police arrested him, he claimed to have explosives so not to take any risk, the army has been called in to check.'

She said 'mentally unstable' suspect was from Rwanda and was not known to have a police record.

The vehicle was reportedly registered in Germany. It was understood the man was alone. No-one was injured.

Molenbeek, a poor district of the capital with a large Moroccan Muslim population, has been dubbed the 'jihadi capital of Europe'.

It gained notoriety after an ISIS cell based there mounted suicide attacks on Paris in November 2015 that killed 130 people.

Associates of that group then attacked Brussels itself four months later, killing 32 people.

A police helicopter flies over the Molenbeek suburb tonight after the police chase

Shots were fired at the vehicle after it became stuck in traffic and the driver reversed into a police car