New information on Paris attacks released

Reports from Europe this morning suggest a man wanted in connection with the terror attacks in Paris may have been arrested.

Police carried out raids in Belgium this morning and closed several roads, with local media reporting Salah Abdeslam had been arrested.  But authorities are denying reports of the arrest.

Abdeslam was actually questioned by police on Saturday but not arrested, despite having already been identified as the renter of a vehicle that carried hostage-takers to the Paris theatre where nearly three-quarters of Friday’s victims were killed.

A police source says the 26-year-old was stopped just a few hours after the attacks as he drove towards the Belgian border.

France’s prime minister says police staged more than 150 raids overnight in connection with Friday’s terror attacks in Paris that killed 129 people.

France’s Interior minister says searches have so far found a rocket launcher, assault rifle and automatic pistols as well as bulletproof vests.

It was also announced this morning that a Belgian-born man, believed to be in Syria has been identified as the mastermind behind Friday’s attacks in Paris.

Abdelhamid Abboud is also linked to the attack on a high-speed train that was thwarted by passengers in August.

Yesterday France launched what it calls “massive” air strikes on Islamic State targets in the group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa, Syria.