Police handout Copyright: Police handout

Several Belgian media outlets are carrying reports that Salah Abdeslam, the suspected Paris gunman on the run from police, was spotted by police in Liege on Sunday but escaped in a black BMW.

The reports said Abdeslam headed in the direction of Germany on the E40 motorway and managed to avoid a police checkpoint.

Belgian authorities have not confirmed the reports, saying only that the fugitive was not among those arrested on Sunday and remains at large.

But if Abdeslam did escape police in Liege, it will be the second time he has slipped the net. He and two others were stopped at a French roadblock on the morning after the attacks, near the Belgian border, but were allowed to proceed by officers unaware of Abdeslam's alleged involvement in the attacks.