Many more involved in Paris raids: Hollande
The French president says the number of those involved in the last November attacks in Paris is more than what was initially thought.
"We realize that there were many more people than we at first thought," François Hollande said during a joint news conference with Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel in the Belgian capital Brussels on Friday, following the detention of Salah Abdeslam, the most wanted fugitive from the Paris raids.
Abdeslam was arrested during a four-hour police operation earlier in the day in the Molenbeek-Saint-Jean district of Brussels. He was taken to a hospital in the city after receiving a gunshot wound in the raid.
"We must catch all those who allowed, organized or facilitated these attacks," Hollande noted.
He also said that Paris would request the extradition of Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national of Moroccan descent, who was born and raised in Brussels.
"I have full confidence in the success of this extradition process. Abdeslam will be interrogated and judged in France," Hollande stressed.
Abdeslam had been on the run since the November 13 attacks in which 130 people lost their lives and 350 others sustained injuries. The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assaults.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the French president said the security threat level was very high in France and Belgium.
A state of emergency, which was imposed in France after the November 2015 attacks, was extended by the parliament February for a further three months to May 26.
During the conference, the Belgian premier said Abdeslam's apprehension was "extremely important in the battle for democracy against this abominable form of extremism."
Belgian prosecutors said four other people were arrested on Friday, three of whom for providing shelter to the terror suspect.
Belgium has tried to play a significant role over the past four months in hunting down key suspects in the Paris attacks.
Abdeslam’s brother Brahim, who blew himself up on November 13, was one of the main attackers in Paris.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the attacks and a Brussels resident, was killed in a police raid in Paris in November.
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