Soldiers patrolled the streets of Brussels and police detained five more people on the third day of a security lockdown on Monday, as Belgium hunted a suspected Islamist militant who has been on the run since the attacks in Paris.
Authorities are still warning of possible imminent attacks like those in the French capital this month, in which 130 people were killed, and hunting Brussels barkeeper Salah Abdeslam, who returned to the city from Paris hours after the Nov. 13 attacks.
Police did not find Abdeslam, whose brother blew himself up in Paris, in 22 raids late on Sunday when 16 people were detained. Five more people were arrested during searches of seven houses in the Brussels and Liege regions early on Monday.
Police have given no details of those held. No weapons were found on Sunday but 26,000 euros in cash, found at a single site, was seized by prosecutors.
The metro, museums, most cinemas and many shops will stay shut on Monday in the usually bustling EU capital where many staff have opted to work from home. There was also no school or university for almost 300,000 students.
On the Grand Place, a historic central square that usually draws crowds of tourists, an armoured military vehicle was parked under an illuminated Christmas tree.
NATO, which had raised its alert level since the Paris attacks, said its headquarters in the city were open, but some of its 1,000 staff had been asked to work from home and external visits had been cancelled.
EU institutions, which employ some 21,000 people in Brussels, were also open with the soldiers patrolling outside.
Prime Minister Charles Michel said the city of 1.2 million will remain on Belgium’s fourth and highest level of security threat, meaning the threat of an attack was “serious and imminent”.
“What we fear is an attack similar to the one in Paris, with several individuals who could possibly launch several attacks at the same time in multiple locations,” he told a news conference.
Authorities were due to review the situation again on Monday afternoon.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon told RTL radio, however, that Belgium’s capital was still operating. “Apart from the closed metro and schools, life goes on in Brussels, the public sector is open for business on Monday, many companies are open,” Jambon said on Monday morning.
The city’s buses were running normally and many shops in the suburbs were open.Workers were also setting up stalls for the city centre Christmas market, which is due to open on Friday, and local organisers of the Davis Cup tennis final between Belgium and Britain in the city of Ghent, 55 km (35 miles) to the west of the capital, said it would go ahead this weekend.
Germany has kept security along its border with Belgium at a high level since the Paris attacks, a German police spokesman said after media reports that Abdeslam was spotted near the frontier.