AN ARREST in a French suburb this morning has stopped a second attack on Paris.

The French Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, told local media one man with ties to a terror organistion was arrested after an anti-terror operation sealed a section of General Delambre Boulevarde in Argenteuil.

Residents were evacuated as masked police stormed the area.

Minister Cazeneuve said the arrest was not related to Brussels but part of an operation that had been ongoing for several weeks.

The man arrested was in the “advanced stages” of a plot against the French capital.

Meanwhile, police are hunting a second attacker suspected of taking part in the bombing of a subway train in Brussels this week.

The revelation comes after a man was seen on CCTV footage carrying a large bag.

CNN reports a senior Belgian security source said police were after a second attacker who is unidentified at this stage. It’s also unknown whether he is alive or dead.

Khalid El Bakraoui was identified as being one of the subway terrorists, he died in the attack on the train near the Maelbeek metro station.

Belgian state broadcaster RTBF said it was unknown whether the second suspect died on the subway attack alongside Bakraoui.

It has also been revealed today that Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam was only briefly questioned by Belgian law officials when he was arrested last Friday, just four days before the Brussels attacks.

It is believed Abdeslam was planning a new attack before he was captured on March 18 in a police raid in Brussels.

After his arrest, police questioned Abdeslam for only one hour and The Telegraph reports he revealed no information about the threat on Brussels because prosecutors focused on his involvement in the Paris attacks, and he wasn’t quizzed on future plans.



The Telegraph reports he was only briefly interrogated despite police finding his fingerprints in a safe house days earlier, where they found detonators and weapons.

Abdeslam’s lawyer said “it’s not important” what his client thinks about the Brussels bombings which killed 31 and injured 270, and he didn’t want him to “close up again”.

Sven Mary told Europe Radio 1 that his client was not co-operating with police after the raid on his home last week.

He said Abdeslam had asked to meet with him after a “visit from investigators”.

“I don’t want him to close up again. If he closes up again, we will be facing more cases like Zaventem and the Bataclan,” he said.

The former youth footballer has earned the nickname “scumbag’s lawyer” for his role in defending notorious jihadists operating in Belgium.

When asked what Abdeslam thought of the Brussels attacks, he said: “I don’t want to know what he thinks. At this stage, it’s not important.”

It’s believed Abdeslam was a key organiser of the Paris attacks but dumped his suicide vest at the last minute.

Mr Mary said Abdeslam will not fight the extradition hearing today to determine whether he will go to France to face trial for his alleged role in the Paris attacks.



“Salah Abdeslam told me that he wishes to leave for France as soon as possible,” he said.

“The most important part of the file is in France. His explanations have to go there.”

THE NEWS COMES AS:

• The Belgian prosecutor said the metro attacker rented a flat for Paris attacks

• Police are thought to be hunting two suspects — a second metro bomber and the “man in white”

• Turkey warned Belgium and the Netherlands of Ibrahim El Barkraoui when they deported him

• Harrowing new footage emerges from inside the airport

• Islamic State jihadists celebrate online

• The El Bakraoui brothers secretly filmed Belgium’s nuclear boss

NUCLEAR BOSS SECRETLY FILMED

Belgian newspaper Dernier Heure claims the El Bakraoui brothers were plotting an attack on nuclear plants and had secretly filmed the head of the country’s nuclear regime.

It’s thought “dozens of hours” of footage of the country’s nuclear chief was found during a raid on the apartment of another terror suspect Mohammed Bakkali.

Investigators believe the brothers planted cameras to “jeopardise national security like never before,” DH wrote.

Two nuclear plants in the country were evacuated after the attack at the airport.

Yesterday prosecutors named Khalid El Bakraoui as one of the suicide bombers on the train. His brother, Ibrahim, died in the airport attacks.

Bomb-maker Najim Laachraoui, whose DNA was found inside the Bataclan nightclub in Paris, is also thought to have died, according to security officials.

Police are already searching for an unidentified “man in white” who was also captured on CCTV inside Zaventem Airport.

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said he warned Belgian and Dutch authorities about Irbrahim El Bakraoui when he was deported from Turkey to the Netherlands.

It was also revealed that the suicide bombers booked a van to the airport, however miscommunication with the taxi company means they got a car instead.

The driver had previously told police the men wanted to bring five suitcases but could only manage to fit three in the car.

JIHADISTS CELEBRATE ONLINE

Islamic State has released a video online celebrating the attacks called “The exile of Islam and the Brussels attacks.

It follows a sick online poll asking jihadists which city should be next, according to The Daily Express.

“What will be the colour of the Eiffel Tower in the next attacks? (sic)” was posted online, in reference to the way the iconic landmark was lit up in colours of the French and Belgian flag following recent attacks.

Reported responses include London, Washington, Russia and Rome — all of whom have stepped up security in the wake of the attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Prosecutors said at least 31 people were killed and 270 injured in the three suicide bomb attacks in Brussels on Tuesday morning, and the death toll could rise. In Paris, 130 people were killed in a series of attacks in the Bataclan nightclub, stadium and neighbourhood restaurants.

European Union ministers are gathering in Brussels for an emergency meeting on Thursday as the manhunt continues.

The meeting of justice and security ministers is “intended to show solidarity with Belgium, discuss the actual state of play in the fight against terrorism and pursue swift completion and implementation of legislation”, the EU said.