Paris bomber's lost mobile found under paperwork in police station Published duration 15 November 2016 Related Topics November 2015 Paris attacks

image copyright Handout image caption Brahim Abdeslan's phone was seized by police in February 2015

A Paris suicide bomber's mobile phone has been found underneath a pile of paperwork in a Belgian police station, many months after it went missing.

The phone belonging to Brahim Abdeslam, whose brother Salah is awaiting trial, was seized by police in February 2015.

It contains evidence that Abdeslam was in contact with those who carried out the attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Its disappearance came to light during the investigation into the Paris attacks on 13 November 2015.

But Belgian authorities have stressed the phone's disappearance has not hampered their investigation since the so-called Islamic State (IS) extremist blew himself up outside a Paris cafe.

"The phone's contents had been backed up before it was lost. All the information was in our system so the loss had no impact on the investigation," Johan Berckmans, of Brussels West police, told the BBC.

Mr Berckmans also confirmed it had been found underneath a pile of paperwork.

Abdeslam's mobile had originally been seized as part of a drugs investigation, but it was supposed to be handed to Belgium's anti-terrorist unit after his links to extremism emerged.

But according to Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure (in French), the phone was found in the local police station in Molenbeek - suggesting it had never made it to the anti-terrorism unit.

image copyright EPA image caption The extremist blew himself up outside a Paris cafe in November 2015

A phone seized in February was cited as one of 13 chances Belgian authorities had to unmask the terror cell before the attacks, as it contained contact details of other members of the cell, according to a final report into the attacks, seen by newspaper De Tijd.

However, the contents of the phone were not properly investigated because of a lack of staff, RTBF (in French) reported.

Belgian police have faced criticism over the Paris and Brussels attacks, including their handling of the hunt for Salah Abdeslam . They have been accused of not telling French authorities quickly enough that he was a suspected jihadist, thereby allowing him to escape on the night of the attacks.