A manhunt is under way for Saleh Abdeslam after he was reportedly questioned and released despite being identified by authorities.

21:14, UK,Sunday 15 November 2015

A man wanted over the Paris terror attacks had been questioned and released by police hours after the massacre, it has emerged.

Salah Abdeslam, 26, reportedly helped with logistics and rented a black Volkswagen Polo used by the gunmen who stormed the Bataclan concert hall and killed at least 89 people on Friday night.

He was questioned when officers pulled over a car carrying three people near the Belgian border, then checked Abdeslam’s ID and subsequently let him go, said officials.

The incident on Saturday morning came just hours after authorities had identified him as the person who rented the Polo which was abandoned at the scene of the attack.

One of his brothers, Ibrahim Abdeslam, was reportedly among the seven suicide bombers in the co-ordinated assaults targeting six sites across the French capital.

A third brother was apparently arrested in Belgium and questioned before being released.

Salah Abdeslam, who was born in Brussels, is described as 1m 75cm (5ft 8in) tall and has brown eyes.

Police released a photo of him and warned the public he is dangerous and said “do not intervene yourself”. There are reports he may have fled to Spain.

Another man, Bilal Hadfi, has been named as among the attackers and he also lived in Belgium as did Salah and Ibrahim Abdeslam, said the Washington Post.

Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old man from Courcouronnes, a town 16 miles south of Paris in Essonne, has been officially identified as another assailant.

He was one of the terrorists inside the Bataclan, where a rock concert was taking place, and had been flagged for links to Islamic radicalism. His father and brother have been arrested.

A total of 132 people were killed and 352 injured during the gun and bomb rampage carried out by three teams in identical explosives vests who targeted the hall, restaurants and bars and the national stadium. 

In other developments:

:: A suicide attacker at the stadium has been identified as a French national living in Belgium as was a man who attacked a restaurant. They were aged 20 and 31, say authorities.

:: At least seven people have now been detained in Belgium and on the Belgian-French border, but Belgian officials have declined to comment on reports the attacks were largely planned in Brussels.

:: A French citizen is among three people detained at the Belgian border, while others were held in police raids in Molenbeek, an immigrant area of Brussels.

:: Three Kalashnikov assault rifles were discovered inside a Seat car reportedly used in the attacks against bars and restaurants and which was found in the suburb of Montreuil, four miles east of Paris.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Chartres said Mostefai was killed in one of the attacks and French newspaper Le Monde said he was identified from a print from his severed finger, discovered after he detonated a suicide vest inside the Bataclan.

He had a criminal record and was known to security services but had not spent time in jail or been linked to any extremist groups.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said at least one of those held in Molenbeek was thought to have spent the previous night in Paris.

Molenbeek has been connected with two attacks in France this year – the Islamist killer at a kosher shop in Paris in January got his guns in the district, as did the attacker overpowered on a Brussels-Paris train in August.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s near-simultaneous attacks, which it blamed on France’s involvement in the US-led airstrikes on IS territory in Syria and Iraq.

The assailants were heard speaking of both countries during the atrocities. French jets have launched fresh aerial raids on the IS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, following the tragedy.

http://news.sky.com/story/1588193/police-let-fugitive-suspect-go-after-attacks?

Categories: Current Affairs