Three Dead in Belgium Anti-Terror Raid

Belgian police launched a "jihadist-related" anti-terrorism operation in the eastern town of Verviers on Thursday, with reports saying three people had been killed.

Public broadcaster RTBF reported three deaths and said explosions were heard at the scene, but there was no immediate confirmation.

The incident comes as Europe is on high alert after 17 people were killed in the Islamist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris last week.

"An operation is under way," a source in the mayor's office told AFP without giving further details.

Another official said separately that the incident in Verviers, which is close to the German border some 125 kilometers (70 miles) from Brussels, was "jihadist-related".

In May 2014, four people were shot dead in a suspected Islamist attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, who had previously been in Syria, has been charged with murder.

The men targeted in Verviers were under surveillance having returning from Syria a week ago, Belgian media reported.

Intelligence indicated they were planning an attack, the reports said.

Prosecutors were due to give a press conference at 1900 GMT.

Several reports said a series of other anti-terror raids were under way across Belgium, including in the capital Brussels, where the European Union is headquartered.

Residents reported gunfire and blasts in the raid on a former bakery in central Verviers.

"I heard a sort of explosion, followed by several gunshots," one local resident told RTBF. "For the moment, I cannot tell you any more because I don't dare go out to see what is happening."

Another local resident said "machineguns were firing for about 10 minutes."

A third witness said he saw two young men apparently of North African origin "dressed all in black carrying a bag of the same color," adding that the pair looked terrified.

Three Islamic State militants threatened attacks on Belgium in a video broadcast on Wednesday, the Belga news agency reported.

Belgian investigators said earlier Thursday they were probing whether an arms dealer sold weapons used in the Paris attacks, after confirming supermarket gunman Amedy Coulibaly sold the man a car belonging to his partner Hayat Boumeddiene.

There was no immediate confirmation of any link between the Coulibaly investigation and Thursday's raid.

The man, Neetin Karasular, from the airport city of Charleroi in French-speaking southern Belgium, is in detention on suspicion of a possible link to the weapons used in the Paris attacks.

"The issue of weapons is under investigation," prosecutors' office spokesman Eric Van der Sijpt told AFP, adding that Karasular was under suspicion for "arms trafficking

Belgian prosecutors are working with French authorities to establish any "possible link" to last week's Paris attacks.

Coulibaly, who was killed by police on Friday, is also believed to have shot dead a policewoman in another Paris attack.

Van der Sijpt added that the Belgian suspect "bought the car belonging to Coulibaly's wife." 

Karasular handed himself into police on Tuesday, saying he had been in contact with Coulibaly in recent months and had tried to "swindle" the Frenchman over the car deal, but was scared after the Paris attacks.

Investigators searched his house and found documents proving the sale of the vehicle and papers showing negotiations with Coulibaly about arms and ammunition, including a Tokarev pistol of the sort used by the Frenchman during the supermarket attack, Belga said.

Karasular will appear before a magistrate in Charleroi on Monday who will decide whether he will remain in custody.

Spain meanwhile opened an investigation Thursday into Coulibaly and Boumeddiene's visit to Madrid shortly before the attacks.

Turkish authorities say Boumeddiene crossed into Syria on January 8 from Turkey. She had arrived in Istanbul on a flight from Madrid before the Paris attacks took place.