A Belgian special forces police officer
© Yves Herman / ReutersA Belgian special forces police officer
Belgian police have detained three people for questioning following house searches in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, Reuters cited prosecutors as saying. It comes amid an ongoing anti-terror operation in the Belgian capital.


The operation, which reportedly involves police anti-terror units, is being conducted at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, according to media reports. The police have already raided and searched several houses in the area, while some streets in Molenbeek were cordoned off.

"These are searches carried out within the framework of a judicial file managed by the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office," the spokesman of the federal police told local RTL info.


The Brussels Prosecutor's Office said it was a terrorism-related case. Several people were reportedly detained, according to RTL info.


Police Special Forces units, equipped with armored vehicles, are assisting officers in the area, Belgium's HLN news reports. A helicopter has also been deployed to the scene.

The Molenbeek district has a reputation of being a terrorist hub and became associated with extremism following the November 2015 Paris attacks. Three terrorists involved in those attacks had grown up and lived in the district.

Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving terrorist suspect behind the Paris attacks, who played a "central role" in organizing the Paris attacks in November, according to prosecutors, was detained in spring 2016 in Molenbeek not far from the area of the Friday operation, following an armed siege.

The district, which is home to mostly ethnic and religious minorities, has been at the heart of terrorist plots going back to the 1990s, and is also considered an international illegal arms trading hub. It has also, proportionately, provided more Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters than any other place in Europe.