The recently captured suspect of the Paris terror attacks was likely planning to carry out fresh attacks, most likely in Brussels, according to Belgian authorities. Salah Abdeslam was arrested Friday after a four-month manhunt and is now in prison in Belgium.
“He was ready to restart something from Brussels,” Belgium’s Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said at an event on Sunday. “That is maybe the reality, because we have found a lot of heavy weapons and we have seen a new network around him.”
Reynders also said there was a vast terrorist network involved in the Paris attacks that killed 130 people. “We are sure that for the moment we have found more than 30 people involved in the terrorist attacks in Paris, but we are sure there are others,” Reynders said. On Friday, French President Francois Hollande had said there were more people involved in the Nov. 13 attack than originally thought. Authorities are now looking for two men believed to have also played a major role in the attacks.
The 26-year-old Abdeslam told authorities he had planned to be a suicide bomber in the attack on the Paris stadium. “He wanted to blow himself up at the Stade de France and, I quote, backed out,” said Francois Molins, the French public prosecutor. Abdeslam’s lawyer said he would take legal action against Molins for revealing that information, which he claims violated the confidentiality of the investigation. The suspect is currently fighting extradition to Paris.
