Belgian police raid two properties over France train attack: prosecutor

Brussels

 Belgian police carried out searches at two properties in Brussels over suspicions that a Moroccan gunman who attacked a French high-speed train might have lived there, prosecutors said Tuesday.

 Ayoub El Khazzani boarded the Amsterdam-Paris train in Brussels last Friday armed with a Kalashnikov and other arms but was overpowered by a group of Americans and Briton when he opened fire.

 "Within the framework of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office’s anti-terrorism case on the Thalys attack on August 21, two searches were conducted on Monday," the prosecutor said in a statement.

 "Both searches took place in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (in Brussels) and were part of the search for the possible residences of the suspect."

 The raids targeted the houses of Khazzani's sister and of one of his friends, where he was believed to have spent several days, Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure reported.

 Nobody was arrested or questioned, but several items were removed for further investigation, the prosecutor said.

 Molenbeek is known as an Islamist hotspot, and several searches were carried out there in January following the dismantling of a jihadist cell that was allegedly planning to kill Belgian police officers.