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Montrouge
"Explosive belt" found in a dustbin in Paris
The belt was found in an area which one of the attackers is known to have been in.
A “BELT THAT may resemble an explosive belt” was found today in the southern Paris suburb of Montrouge, sources close to the investigation said, ten days after attacks in the capital left 130 people dead.
The object was found in a dustbin, a police source said. A source close to the inquiry said telephone data placed Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the attacks who is believed to still be on the run, in the Montrouge area on the night of the attacks.
A police official, who couldn’t be named because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the investigation, said the belt was found without a detonator by a street cleaner in a pile of rubble and was being analysed by police.
Abdeslam is believed to have escaped the attacks rather than blowing himself up.
He and his brother Brahim played a key logistical role in the wave of terror which left 130 people dead and hundreds injured, renting cars and hotel rooms where the jihadists could hole up.
Brahim, like another five of the assailants, blew himself up after the bloodshed. A seventh was shot by police.
However Salah did not.
Instead he was spirited away to Belgium by two other men who were arrested and charged there.
Salah was stopped during a routine traffic control check on his way back to Belgium by police who did not yet know he was a wanted man.
Mohammed Amri, 27, and Hamza Attou, 20, who were with him were tracked down by police and arrested. They have told investigators they dropped Salah off in Brussels.
Attou’s lawyer told LCI television her client was “very afraid” during the trip.
“My client mentions a big vest… maybe an explosives belt or something like that,” said lawyer Carine Couquelet.
