Brussels on high alert as more suspects arrested

Heavily armed police and soldiers patrolled key intersections in Brussels, and subways were closed in the Belgium capital Saturday as the government warned of a threat of Paris-style attacks. At least one suspect from the deadly Paris attacks is at large, and was last seen crossing into Belgium.

Belgium Prime Minister Charles Michel said the decision to raise the threat alert for the city to the highest level was taken "based on quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris ... where several individuals with arms and explosives launch actions, perhaps even in several places at the same time."

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office said Saturday that several weapons were discovered during the search of the home of one of three people arrested in connection with the Paris attacks, but said no explosives were found.

And in Turkey, officials detained a 26-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan origin, who was believed to have been in contact with the Paris attackers.

Meanwhile, in France, regional authorities say some 10,000 people marched in the southwestern French city of Toulouse in a rally "for civil rights and peace."

The largely silent event Saturday was held to commemorate the victims of last week's attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Participants held banners condemning the "barbarism" of the attacks and warning against holding all Muslims responsible for the violence.

Authorities across Europe, the Mideast and in Washington are trying to determine how a network of primarily French and Belgian attackers with links to fighters in Syria plotted and carried out the deadliest violence in France in decades — and how many may still be on the run.

Belgium's national crisis center had raised its security alert for the Brussels region to Level 4, which indicates a "serious and immediate threat." Belgium's special security Cabinet held an emergency meeting Saturday morning.

Brussels was the home of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected organizer of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, and Belgium has filed charges of "participation in terrorist attacks and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization" against three suspects relating to the Paris attacks.

At least one suspected Paris attacker, Salah Abdeslam, crossed into Belgium the morning after the attacks. A Paris police official and the Paris prosecutor's office said Saturday they had no firm information on Abdeslam's whereabouts, including whether he was in the Brussels area.

Brussels is a city of more than 1 million that is home to the headquarters of the European Union, the NATO alliance and offices of many multinational corporations.

Residents were recommended to avoid gatherings, train stations, airports and commercial districts. Service was halted on the Brussels Metro, as well as on streetcar lines that run underground.

The prime minister, speaking at a news conference after the emergency government meeting, said, "We urge the public not to give in to panic, to stay calm. We have taken the measures that are necessary."

He said that the government's emergency officials will meet again on Sunday afternoon to reassess the threat.

In Turkey, Ahmet Dahmani was detained in the coastal city of Antalya along with two other suspected Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters. A senior Turkish government official said Dahmani was believed to have been in contact with the Paris attackers, though the official did not say when. Dahmani had arrived in Turkey on Nov. 14 from Amsterdam, and the three were preparing to cross into Syria, the official said.

The official cannot be named because of Turkish government rules that bar officials from speaking to reporters without prior authorization.

Government officials in Belgium and France would not immediately comment on Dahmani's arrest.

A Paris police official said Saturday that he had no information about Dahmani or his possible visit to the attack sites. 

Concerns about Europe's porous borders prompted interior and justice ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday to promise tightened controls to make it easier to track the movements of fighters with European passports traveling to and from war zones in Syria.

Paris prosecutors said Friday that they had determined through fingerprint checks that two of the seven attackers who died in the bloodshed Nov. 13 had entered Europe through Greece, an entry point for many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in Europe.

The five other attackers who died had links to France and Belgium. One of the seven dead has not been identified, while a manhunt is underway for one suspect who escaped, 26-year-old Abdeslam. French police stopped Abdeslam the morning after Friday's attacks at the Belgian border but then let him go. His brother Ibrahim blew himself up in the Paris attacks.

The suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a raid Wednesday on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

Marking a week since the carnage, some Parisians lit candles and paid tribute Friday night to the victims with silent reflection. Others decided that enjoying themselves was the best way to defy the violence. They sang and danced on Place de la Republique, in the heart of a trendy neighborhood where scores of people were killed.

France's Parliament has extended a state of emergency for three months, expanding police powers to carry out arrests and searches and allowing authorities to forbid the movement of persons and vehicles at specific times and places.

French President Francois Hollande is also meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday morning in Paris to discuss cooperation in the fight against the ISIL group in Syria and Iraq, Cameron's office said. Hollande will travel to Washington and Moscow later in the week to push for a stronger international coalition against IS.

The Associated Press