They are given £1,700 for first trip, £3,100 for second, it has been claimed

One radical cleric, Khalid Zerkani, is said to have sent teenagers to Syria

Radical preachers are grooming troubled teenagers to rob people on the streets of Belgium before shipping them off to fight in Syria, it has been reported.

Anti terror units are said to be probing clerics in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, dubbed the 'jihadi capital of Europe', who are brainwashing children into pickpocketing 'non believers'.

The teenagers, who carry out ten robberies a day, are given a £1,700 bonus the first time they travel to war ravaged Syria and returnees are given £3,100, it is claimed.

Brainwashed: Preachers in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, where police (pictured) have been carrying out raids this week, are grooming children nto robbing 'non believers', it has been reported

Radicalised: Anti terror units are said to be probing preachers who are brainwashing children into pickpocketing people in Molenbeek (pictured) before sending them to Syria

They are also given up to £400 which pays for their crossing from Turkey into war torn Syria, Matthew Drake of the Sunday People has reported.

Some of them are said to be signed up by Muslim preacher Khalid Zerkani, 41, nicknamed 'Santa Claus', who orders them to steal cameras, cash and jewellery at Brussels' Eurostar station.

Zerkani is said to run a network of traffickers in Istanbul, Turkey, and has sent several teenagers to join ISIS in Syria.

One boy called Yousef carried out ten robberies a day for a month before he was offered the chance to go to Syria, police reports revealed.

Radical clerics are believed to justify the crimes by telling children that Belgium is an 'enemy of Islam'.

The slain mastermind of the Paris attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud, on the run terrorist Salah Abdeslam and his suicide bomber brother Ibrahim all grew up in the deprived Molenbeek district where the children are being radicalised.

The densely populated neighbourhood of 100,000 has gained a reputation as a breeding ground for jihadis.

Besieged: Police guard a street in which special intervention forces search a house in the Molenbeek neighborhood in Brussels

New identity: Salah Abdeslam (left) - who is said to be using a new name and disguising himself using a wig and glasses (right) - grew up in Molenbeek

Radicalised: The mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud (pictured), also spent time in the run down neighbourhood of Molenbeek

Molenbeek's mayor Francoise Schepmans said a small minority of its Muslim population has been radicalised in recent years.

On Monday, Belgian special forces stormed a Molenbeek apartment because they believed Abdeslam was inside.

Soldiers clambered across the roof and were seen firing tear gas through a window to flush out the terrorist.

A hooded man was handcuffed and put in a car by plain-clothes police but the Mayor Schepmans insisted there were no arrests and the wanted man is still on the run.

Abdeslam is one of three 'blood brothers' believed to be at the heart of French massacres in which 130 were killed on November 13.

Incredibly he was stopped and then released by French police guarding the Belgian border hours after the attacks.

He has since been the subject of an international manhunt and more than 2,000 officers are said to have been assigned to hunt him down.

Guardians: Police officer and soldiers on security duty inside Galerie de la Reine following the terror alert level being elevated in Brussels

Precaution: Hundreds of armed police flooded the streets of Belgium's capital today after the lockdown was extended for the second day

It was thought the terror suspect, believed to be a getaway driver and potential shooter, may be hiding in Molenbeek, where the eight-strong ISIS terror cell may have met before the Paris raids to gather automatic weapons and suicide vests.

He is thought to have driven his brother Ibrahim, who blew himself up outside the Comptoire Voltaire cafe, and a French shooter to four restaurants in Paris' Canal Saint Martin area where they murdered dozens of people.