Anti-terror raid leaves two dead in Belgium

Two suspects were killed and one injured on Thursday afternoon (15 January) after an anti-terror raid by Belgian police who acted to prevent "imminent, large-scale attacks," two officials from the Belgian state prosecutor office said in a press conference.

The shoot-out took place around 17 local time in a former bakery shop in the south-eastern town of Verviers in the French-speaking region of Wallonia.

According to the state prosecutor's office, police stormed the suspects' hideout only to be met by bullets fired from small and assault weapons.

At the same time, police were deployed in several parts of the Belgian capital, Brussels, and in the area around the main airport, Zaventem.

According to the state prosecutor's office, several house searches were carried out at the homes of suspects planning the attacks. Some of the suspects had recently returned from Syria, the Belgian officials said.

Prosecutor spokesperson Eric Van der Sypt said those targeted in the raid had been under surveillance since from Syria and were close to carrying out an attack.

Witnesses on the Brussels metro spoke of an armed man who got off the train at the Ribaucourt metro stop shouting "Allahu akbar" before being captured by policemen later on.

The Belgian police action is part of a broader international anti-terrorist action which includes some seven countries, RTL tv station reports.

The shoot-out, house searches and arrest come at just one week after the massacre in Paris, where 17 people were killed in separate attacks on Charlie Hebdo, a satire newspaper, and a kosher store.

The attacks were later claimed by Al Qaeda in Yemen, while one of the attackers, Amedy Coulibaly, shot dead by police, had purchased his weapons in Belgium.

A man accused of having sold Coulibaly the assault weapons was seized by Belgian police Thursday. The Belgian authortities have raised the terrorist alert from 2 to 3 (out of 4) for the federal police.