Fourth Brussels bombings suspect 'still on the run'
Belgian federal prosecutor says previous reports of him being captured were false
Belgian authorities have confirmed the fourth Brussels bombings suspect was "still on the run" and said previous reports of him being captured were false.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the man standing to the right of two others and wearing a hat on CCTV footage taken before the Brussels airport attacks, was still at large.
The man standing in the middle, a suicide bomber, has been identified as Brahim el-Bakraoui, a Belgian national who was born in Brussels.
Another man, also a suicide bomber, standing to Brahim’s left in the CCTV footage has not yet been identified, according to Van Leeuw.
The prosecutor said Belgian authorities also found a written statement by Brahim saying: "I don’t know what to do I, am on the run, if I give myself up I will end up in a cell."
The bombings came four days after the arrest of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam and a week after a police shootout in the Brussels district of Forest where a suspected Daesh member was shot dead.
Brahim’s brother Khalid el-Bakraoui has been confirmed as the suicide bomber at the Maelbeek subway station, located near European Union institutions. Both brothers had a criminal record, but not for terrorism-related activities, according to Belgian authorities.
Tuesday’s Brussels bombings in both Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station killed 31 people and injured 260 others, said Van Leeuw and warned the death toll could rise in the days to come.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for the attack through a news agency linked to the group.
