MOROCCO SAID TODAY it had arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent who it said was directly linked with some of those behind the jihadist attacks in Paris in November.

The interior ministry said in a statement that the suspect, arrested on Friday in the town of Al-Muhammadiyah near Casablanca, had “direct links with some” of the Paris attackers and had travelled to Syria where he joined the Islamic State group.

130 people were killed in Paris the night of 13 November 2015 and 368 were wounded in a series of attacks at different places around the city. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the events.

Seven of the attackers were killed on the night, but other suspects remain at large.

One suspect is Salah Abdelsalam (26), who rented the car that drove to the Bataclan Theatre in Paris in November, where 89 people were killed. He narrowly evaded capture by authorities in Belgium.

It is unclear at this time what relationship the man arrested in Morocco had with the attackers.

With reporting from Cormac Fitzgerald

- © AFP, 2016