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Described by Belgian media as "public enemy number 1", Abdeslam spent time in jail in 2010 for a robbery in which Paris attacker Abdelhamid Abaaoud was also implicated. Both men were from the Molenbeek district of Brussels.

The following year, Abdeslam was fired from his job as a technician for Brussels transport company STIB for repeatedly failing to turn up for work.

By early 2015, both he and his brother Brahim were known to have plans to join so-called Islamic State in Syria. Last July, Salah Abdeslam travelled to Greece in apparent preparation for the Paris attacks.

On 9 September, he was stopped on the Hungarian border with two men. One is thought to have been Mohamed Belkaid, the Algerian gunman shot dead in Brussels on Tuesday. The other is said to be Soufiane Kayal, who was reportedly among the three men arrested on Friday.

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