Master bombmaker still on the run

The Brussels master bombmaker — known as the ‘Man in White’ — is still on the run on Wednesday after evading a series of special forces raids following the deadly attacks which killed at least 30 people on Tuesday.

Belgium’s chief prosecutor on Wednesday afternoon confirmed Najim Laachraoui is ‘still at large’ after Belgian media reported the ISIS explosives expert was taken alive by a SWAT team inside a pizzeria in the Anderlecht suburb of the city. The latest twist came after Belgian brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were named as two of the ISIS suicide bombers - eight days after they escaped police in a gunfight - and it is now clear there is a mystery fourth suicide bomber.

Laachraoui is suspected of rigging up the suicide vests that helped in the twin attacks on Tuesday — and is believed to have done the same for the Paris terrorists who murdered 130 in November.

He went on the run after leaving a suitcase packed with explosives and calmly walked from the terminal moments before the airport massacre at 8am on Tuesday. On Wednesday, federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said it was the largest of all the bombs but it failed to go off. Just 79 minutes after the first attack Khalid El Bakraoui detonated his suicide vest on a Brussels Metro train at Maelbeek station killing 20 people.

The possible fourth bomber pictured on CCTV in the airport is believed to have blown himself up alongside Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who police say was identified by his fingerprints. 

Laachraoui was already one of the world's most wanted men, having built the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks and went on the run with Salah Abdeslam, one of the other Paris massacre masterminds, before hiding in Brussels for four months.