Man charged in 'Belgium attack plot'

Brussels : Belgian authorities on Saturday charged a man over an alleged plot to launch a new attack inBelgium as Europe remained on edge following a wave of jihadist bloodshed in France and Germany.

An investigating judge charged Nourredine H., 33, with attempting to commit "terrorist murder" and "taking part in the activities of a terrorist organisation," the federal prosecutor's office said.

It said the charges come in the "case opened concerning a possible terrorist attack in Belgium."

He was arrested along with his brother Hamza H. following raids on Friday in Belgium's French-speaking areas of Mons and Liege, but Hamza was released Saturday without charge, the office said in a statement.

It had said earlier that both were "suspected of planning a terrorist attack somewhere in Belgium," but gave no other details.

The prosecutor's office said there was for now no link to the suicide bombings on March 22 at Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union headquarters that left 32 people dead.

Those attacks were claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group holds swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

No weapons or explosives were found in Friday's raids, seven in the Mons area and one in Liege, that were ordered by a judge specialising in counter-terror cases, it said.

But Belgium's French-language broadcaster RTBF reported earlier it had information that one of the brothers had been searching for weapons and other "material."

He had served in the past as a logistics man for jihadists leaving for and returning from the Middle East, it added.