A terror suspect who was arrested by police in Brussels after a dramatic stand-off at a tram stop is believed to have previously been jailed for helping to assassinate an Afghan leader just days before 9/11.

Belgian prosecutors said that Abderaman A. was shot in the leg at the tram stop in Schaerbeek because he was carrying a rucksack police believed contained a bomb.

It came as the investigation continued into Tuesday terror attacks in Belgium at Brussels Airport and a metro station in the city, which left 31 people dead.

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Belgian prosecutors said that Abderaman A. was shot in the leg at the tram stop in Schaerbeek because he was carrying a rucksack police believed contained a bomb

Today prosecutors announced that he was being held for another 24 hours as investigations continued.

However, it has also been revealed in Belgian media that the suspect, they have named as Abderaman Ameroud, was jailed for seven years in France in 2005 for providing logistical support for the killing of Afghan resistance leader Ahmed Shah Masood.

Ameroud, who is of French Algerian descent, lived in Afghanistan and was convicted of helping the Taliban to assassinate the commander.

Mr Masood, who was a prominent Afghan leader in the north of the country, was blown up two days before the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., by two men posing as journalists.

Former Afghan Commander Ahmed Shah Masood, who was killed by the Taliban two days before 9/11. Abderaman Ameroud who was arrested in a shoot-out at a tram stop in Brussels, spent seven years in jail for helping to organise the assassination

His death stunned the country and his rebel forces soon joined up with US troops in their fight against the Taliban following the 9/11 terror attacks.

Osama bin Laden is widely believed to have ordered Massoud's killing as a favour to the Taliban, whose protection would be critical after the 9/11 attacks.

Passports found on Mr Masood's killers were linked to a Brussels-based militant cell run by Tarek Maaroufi.

Ameroud was handed a sentence of seven years when he went on trial for his part in the assassination at a court in Paris in 2005.

As the camera moves to include the tram stop, it shows a child crouching by the side of the shot suspect, named Abderaman A as and the man in orange calls for the boy or girl to leave the man

The man in orange manages to convince the child to leave the suspect on the ground, and police - including one carrying a shield - back away

Ameroud was arrested yesterday in Brussels after a stand-off with police where he took a woman hostage.

Witnesses told how heavily armed anti-terror police shot him in the leg because he was carrying a rucksack they believed contained a bomb.

As police moved in the suspect then grabbed a woman and pulled her to the ground.

In heart-stopping footage captured from a balcony above where the drama unfolded, the man can be seen letting a little girl no older than five go as officers get closer.

Belgian police drag Abderaman A. along a tramway platform after he was shot following a raid in the Brussels borough of Schaerbeek

The clip then shows specially trained anti-terror police in bullet proof vests gently coaxing the frightened girl to safety as the target grabbed the woman.

The shooting took place in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek – the scene of a number of anti-terror raids in the last few days.

Najim Laachraoui, the master bomber who blew himself up at Zaventem airport on Tuesday, killing 14, and whose DNA was found on the suicide vests in Paris, lived in Schaerbeek.

DNA traces of Balal Hadfi, one of the Paris bombers, were also found in a flat in Schaerbeek along with a cache of explosives in December.

Police arrested and charged a man identified as Faycal Cheffou, pictured, with terrorist murder over the Brussels terror attacks on Tuesday.

Belgium media reports suggest Cheffou, a freelance journalist, is the third bomber pictured walking through Brussels Airport before the attacks with Ibrahim El Bakraoui, centre, and Najim Laachraoui, left

The news comes as police arrested and charged a man identified as Faycal Cheffou with terrorist murder over the Brussels terror attacks on Tuesday.

Belgium media reports suggest Cheffou, a freelance journalist, is the third bomber pictured walking through Brussels Airport before the attacks with Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui. However that has not been confirmed by Belgian prosecutors.

But one source close to the investigation, said: 'That is a hypothesis the investigators are working on.'