THE four-month manhunt for Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam came to an explosive conclusion on Friday thanks to an unusual pizza order.

French and Belgian police had been searching for the Islamic State members who carried out the November 13 attacks, killing 130 people, when they found the vital clue.

Six police officers carrying out a daytime check on what they thought was a defunct terrorist safe house in the Brussels suburb of Forest were shot at with a Kalashnikov and a riot gun, wounding four of them. Armed police chased the suspects over rooftops, killing one of the gunmen, according to Politico.

Back in the house, they found a fingerprint belonging to Abdeslam on a glass, leading them to believe the suspected mastermind of the attacks must be nearby.

By Wednesday, they were staking out a home in the Molenbeek neighbourhood, just 450 metres from Abdeslam’s former home. When a woman living at the home ordered several pizzas, they became convinced there was a larger group at the house.

Police raided the house on Friday and found the woman along with two friends, children and Abdeslam, who was dramatically shot in the leg as he was arrested. Officers said he was carrying false identity documents.

Three members of the family that allegedly hid him were also taken into custody.

Abdeslam’s arrest is a vital step in the investigation into France’s deadliest terror attacks. Police allege that the Frenchman, who was born in Belgium, escorted three suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Stade de France. His brother, Ibrahim, detonated his suicide bomb outside the Comptoir Voltaire cafe, while it is believed Salah dumped his suicide vest in a pile of rubbish in southern Paris before calling friends to drive him back to Brussels.

The 26-year-old became the first suspect to be captured alive.

EXTRADITION FIGHT

French President Francois Hollande said he would seek Abdeslam’s extradition, but his lawyer yesterday launched a furious legal fight to avoid it, after Europe’s most wanted fugitive spent his first night in a high-security jail in Bruges.

Belgium’s Foreign Minister suggested Abdeslam was also plotting “something” in Brussels. He is behind bars on charges of “terrorist murder”.

He told interrogators he had planned to blow himself up at the Stade de France stadium in Paris but had backed out at the last minute.

Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said his client would fight his extradition to Paris beginning with a legal complaint against a French prosecutor who divulged the details of the first interrogation with the suspect to journalists on Saturday.

“I don’t understand why a prosecutor in Paris has to communicate at this stage on an investigation in Belgium,” Mary told Le Soir newspaper on Sunday. Abdeslam “is worth gold. He is collaborating, he’s communicating, he is not using his right to remain silent,” he added.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said at a panel discussion Abdeslam “was ready to restart something in Brussels”.

“And it may be the reality because we have found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons, in the first investigations and we have found a new network around him in Brussels.”

Reynders, speaking in English at the Brussels Forum, an annual US-organised transatlantic conference, said police were still working to track down suspects.

“We are sure that for the moment we have found more than 30 people involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris, but we are sure there are others,” he said.

Paris prosector Francois Molins on Saturday told reporters Abdeslam had played a “central role” in planning the attacks, which targeted bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall.

Days after the attacks, an explosives-filled suicide vest was found in an area where mobile phone signals indicated Abdeslam had been.

Abdeslam’s arrest in the gritty Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels was hailed by European and US leaders, while French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said it dealt a “major blow” to IS jihadists operating in Europe.

But the minister warned Saturday that the threat level remained “extremely high” and said France was deploying extra police officers to its borders to step up controls following discussions with Interpol.

At the Neuville-en-Ferrain border post in northern France on Sunday, vehicles heading into Belgium were being checked, although customs officials it was part of routine operations in place since November.

Abdeslam is behind bars in solitary confinement alongside Mehdi Nemmouche, who carried out a fatal attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels in 2014.

Former small-time criminal Abdeslam is believed to be the last surviving member of the 10-man jihadist team that carried out the Paris attacks.

Two more suspects are wanted in connection with the killings — Mohamed Abrini, who became friends with Abdeslam when they were teenagers, and another fugitive known only by a name used on false papers, Soufiane Kayal.

— With wires