text: Police secure an area during a police raid in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels, Belgium on Friday, March 18, 2016. Two French police officials have told The Associated Press that Salah Abdeslam,... (Associated Press) 
   
   BRUSSELS (AP) — The main fugitive from Islamic extremist attacks in Paris in November, Salah Abdeslam, has been arrested in Belgium's capital after four months at large, French police officials said Friday. 
   
   The officials told The Associated Press that he was arrested Friday in a major police operation in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek. 
   
   Both officials are in contact with people involved in the operation and spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing operation. 
   
   Abdeslam, 26, was among the attackers who killed 130 people at a rock concert, the national stadium and cafes on Nov. 13 in Paris. 
   
   In addition to Abdeslam, the whereabouts of two Paris attack suspects remains unknown, including fellow Molenbeek resident Mohamed Abrini and a man known under the alias of Soufiane Kayal. 
   
   Friday's caputure of Abdeslam comes after Belgian authorities say they found his fingerprints in an apartment raided earlier this week in another Brussels neighborhood. 
   
   In that raid, a man believed to have been an accomplice of Abdeslam — Mohamed Belkaid — was shot dead, Belgian prosecutors say. But two men escaped from the apartment, one of whom appears to have been Abdeslam. 
   
   Federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said it was possible Abdeslam had spent "days, weeks or months," in the apartment. 
   
   Abdeslam fled Paris after the Nov. 13 attacks. Most of the Paris attackers died that night, including Abdeslam's brother Brahim, who blew himself up. Brahim Abdeslam was buried in the area Thursday. 
   
   Brussels-born Salah Abdeslam, a childhood friend of suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is believed to have driven a group of gunmen who took part. 
   
   The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which Belgian nationals played key roles. 
   
   On Tuesday, a joint team of Belgian and French police showed up to search a residence in the Forest area of Brussels in connection with the Paris investigation, and were unexpectedly fired upon by at least two people inside. Four officers were slightly wounded. 
   
   An occupant of the residence was shot dead by a police sniper as he prepared to open fire on police from a window. Police identified him as Belkaid, 35, an Algerian national living illegally in Belgium. 
   
   A Kalashnikov assault rifle was found by his body, as well as a book on Salafism, an ultraconservative strain of Islam. Elsewhere in the apartment, police found an Islamic State banner as well as 11 Kalashnikov loaders and a large quantity of ammunition, the prosecutor said. 
   
   Belgian authorities initially said Belkaid had no known background in radical Islamic activities. But Friday afternoon, prosecutors issued a statement saying he was "most probably" an accomplice of Abdeslam who had been using a fake Belgian ID card in the name of Samir Bouzid. 
   
   A man using that ID card was one of the two men seen with Abdeslam in a rental car on the Hungarian-Austrian border in September. 
   
   Four days after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, the same false ID card was used to transfer 750 euros ($847) to Hasna Ait Boulahcen, Abaaoud's niece. Both Ait Boulahcen and Abaaoud died afterward in a police siege. 
   
   Abdeslam slipped through a police dragnet to return to Brussels after the bloodbath in Paris, and though the target of an international manhunt, has not been found since. 
   
   In January, Belgian authorities said one of his fingerprints was found alongside homemade suicide bomb belts at an apartment in another area of Brussels. Belgian prosecutors said it wasn't known whether he had been at the address in the Schaerbeek district before or after the Paris attacks, or how long he had spent there. 
   
   ___ 
   
   Raf Casert in Brussels and Raphael Satter and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. ||||| The most wanted fugitive from November's Paris attacks has been "caught alive" after being wounded in a Brussels shootout, say police. 
   
   The Belgian asylum minister Theo Francken declared, "We got him", referring to 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, Europe's most wanted man. 
   
   Abdeslam suffered leg injuries before being arrested, during a major police operation in the Molenbeek suburb. 
   
   Television footage showed armed security forces dragging a man wearing a hooded top out of a building and to a car. 
   
   At least 10 shots were heard, grenades launched and police helicopters hovered overhead, while fire engines waited in the street. 
   
   A suspect is dragged into a car after a raid in Molenbeek 
   
   Footage showed masked, black-clad security forces training their weapons towards upper windows of an apartment block. 
   
   White smoke could be seen rising above the building, as police with snarling dogs drove crowds in the streets back away from the scene. 
   
   Play video "Suspect Held Outside Brussels Flat" Video: Suspect Held Outside Brussels Flat 
   
   Events As They Unfold: Live Blog 
   
   About three hours after Abdeslam's arrest, two blasts were heard, before a further suspect - who was still holed up - was detained. 
   
   In all, Abdeslam was one of five people arrested in the series of raids, which came after a tip-off to police. 
   
   Two of the suspects, including Abdeslam, were injured. 
   
   Three of those arrested are being held on suspicion of sheltering Abdeslam and an accomplice. 
   
   Play video "Watch: Explosions At Terror Raid" Video: Watch: Explosions At Terror Raid 
   
   French president Francois Hollande and Belgian PM Charles Michel left a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on migration amid news of the raid. 
   
   Later, the pair held a joint news conference in Brussels where Mr Hollande said France would ask for Abdeslam's extradition. 
   
   The French leader said it was clear that the Paris attackers had links to Syria and Islamic State and the terror threat remained high. 
   
   The shootout comes after Belgian authorities said that fingerprints in a Brussels apartment raided earlier this week belonged to Abdeslam. 
   
   A man shot dead in that raid is believed to have been an accomplice of Abdeslam, Belgian prosecutors said on Friday. 
   
   Play video "Terror Standoff In Brussels" Video: Terror Standoff In Brussels 
   
   Sky's foreign affairs editor Sam Kiley said that Abdeslam could prove to be "a goldmine of intelligence". 
   
   Survivors of the attack at the Bataclan venue in Paris reacted to news of the arrest this evening. 
   
   Lydia Berkennou said: "I don’t know why, but deep down in my heart, I knew one of them was him. 
   
   "I knew because I didn’t think he would’ve managed to go back to Syria … I knew he was hiding somewhere." 
   
   Back in November it was reported that Abdeslam had reportedly returned to Brussels with a suicide vest. 
   
   Play video "Ambulances Leave Scene In Brussels" Video: Ambulances Leave Scene In Brussels 
   
   A police source had told The Sunday Times of fears "there is a walking bomb" in the Belgian capital. 
   
   The source said Abdeslam may have become "trapped and desperate" since fleeing the bloodshed which killed 130 people. 
   
   After the Paris attacks, reports emerged of a row between Abdeslam and his brother Brahim, on the night before the massacre. 
   
   One of their friends told a French documentary he heard one of the brothers telling the other that he was "not going" without money. 
   
   "The other one said: 'No, you’re going!' 
   
   1 / 8 Gallery: Gallery: Paris Attacks Fugitive Captured Alive In Belgium The most wanted fugitive from November's Paris attacks has been captured 
   
   "He said to him: 'If I don't have any dosh, I’m not budging. Without dosh I’m not going'," the friend told the documentary. 
   
   It is unclear whether they were fighting about going to Paris. 
   
   Brahim, 31, eventually blew himself up outside a cafe, injuring 15 people, during the co-ordinated attacks. 
   
   Abdeslam was also filmed outside a cafe on the night of the massacre, pointing his gun at two women hiding under outside tables. 
   
   The women can be seen running for safety after Abdeslam's gun does not go off. 
   
   Play video "How Paris Attacks Unfolded" Video: How Paris Attacks Unfolded 
   
   Terror expert Dr David Lowe told Sky News: "These people are not working on their own - we are looking at terror cells in operations 
   
   "You have to be very very careful before you make the move … you want to gather as much evidence as possible. 
   
   "We’re talking about people who are quite willing to use firearms or explosive devices so … it’s a dangerous situation to have." ||||| (CNN) After a four-month search for Europe's most-wanted fugitive, Paris terror attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam was captured Friday, Belgian officials said. 
   
   Abdeslam was wounded in a gunbattle with authorities in an anti-terror raid in the Brussels' suburb of Molenbeek. Four other people were arrested. 
   
   A man named Monir Ahmed Alaaj -- also known as Amine Choukri -- also was wounded and hospitalized, prosecutors said. 
   
   Belgian federal prosecutor's office spokesman Eric Van der Sypt said the others detained included three members of a family who helped hide Abdeslam. 
   
   Earlier, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters that Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French citizen, and another person were wounded in the raid. Abdeslam had a minor leg wound, Van der Sypt announced. 
   
   French President Francois Hollande said Paris prosecutors will urgently request the extradition of Abdeslam. Hollande told reporters he is confident Abdeslam will be sent to France for trial. 
   
   "I know the Belgian authorities will respond quickly and favorably to our request for extradition," Hollande said. 
   
   Officials said as of Friday night no more suspects were in the building where the raid took place. 
   
   After the news broke, many others joined in with laudatory messages, including Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, where Abdeslam allegedly took part in the carnage that left 130 dead 
   
   "Congratulations to the police on the arrest of Salah Abdeslam," Hidalgo tweeted. 
   
   Lieve Reynebeau, who works on the street where Abdeslam was captured, said she heard loud noises and then looked out to see police all around the scene. She managed to leave the area like others -- "all of us safe" -- by foot. 
   
   A photo posted by @lievetxu on Mar 18, 2016 at 9:06am PDT 
   
   Armed and heavily protected police, with helmets and shields, converged on the area. Three explosions were heard there later Friday, CNN French affiliate BFMTV reported, though it wasn't clear if those were controlled blasts or part of a continuing operation. 
   
   And gunshots rang out shortly after 7 p.m. in the same area. 
   
   Police continued to conduct operations in Molenbeek into Saturday morning. 
   
   Molenbeek focus of 'foreign fighter problem' 
   
   Molenbeek, an impoverished Brussels suburb, has a reputation as a hotbed for jihadism . Several members of its large, predominantly Muslim population -- many of whom are first-, second- and third-generation immigrants from North Africa -- have been linked to terror plots and attacks. 
   
   Last fall, Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens cited Molenbeek as a place where more needs to be done to address what he called Belgium's "foreign fighter problem." 
   
   And in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks, authorities conducted raids there and detained numerous individuals. One was Mohammed Abdeslam, the brother of the wanted man captured Friday, who was taken into custody and later released. 
   
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   Mohammed Abdeslam told Belgian state broadcaster RTBF that he thinks Salah at the "last minute ... decided to reconsider" carrying out an attack himself November 13 -- ones that ended, in the other cases, with the assailants dead. 
   
   One of those who did follow through was another brother, Ibrahim Abdeslam, the suicide bomber who detonated explosives outside a cafe on Paris' Boulevard Voltaire. 
   
   1 killed in Tuesday raid 
   
   Earlier Friday, the Belgian federal prosecutor's office revealed that the 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam's fingerprints and DNA were found in a Brussels apartment raided three days earlier. One person was killed and two people escaped that operation, according to authorities. 
   
   The man killed by a special forces sniper was Mohamed Belkaid, an Algerian who used the name Samir Bouzid , and who is believed to have directed the Paris attackers via calls from Belgium, according to the prosecutor's office. 
   
   Belkaid is believed to have helped Abdeslam travel prior to the attacks and transferred money to a female cousin of Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud following the attack, the Belgian senior counter-terrorism official told CNN in January. 
   
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   Authorities believe Abdeslam was using the apartment as a hideout following the Paris attacks, according to the Belgian counter-terrorism official. 
   
   His possible escape spurred an intense manhunt in a country already on guard after last fall's attacks in the French capital. 
   
   Van der Sypt noted earlier this week -- prior to Friday's raid -- that authorities had searched more than 100 houses and arrested 58 people as part of the post-Paris probe. Another 23 people have been arrested "in linked investigations," he said then. 
   
   Suspect thought to have dropped off Paris bomber 
   
   Investigators think Salah Abdeslam may have been the driver of a black Renault Clio that dropped off three suicide bombers near the Stade de France, one of the attack sites near Paris. They also believe he had worn a suicide belt found on a Paris street after the attacks. 
   
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   He is believed to have called friends to take him to Belgium after the attacks. They passed through police checkpoints, but Abdeslam had not yet been identified as a suspect and they were allowed to continue on their way. 
   
   Surveillance video emerged of him and another man at a gas station near the Belgian border the day after the attacks. 
   
   He has eluded authorities ever since. 
   
   In January, authorities found traces of explosives and Abdeslam's fingerprints in another Brussels apartment.
target: – Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris terror attacks and Europe's most wanted man, was captured alive Friday during a raid in Brussels, Belgian counterterrorism sources tell CNN and the AP. The 26-year-old was believed to be hiding out in a Brussels apartment since the Nov. 13 attacks, and a raid on that apartment earlier this week turned up Abdeslam's fingerprints and DNA. But two people escaped that raid, apparently including Abdeslam. (One person, an Algerian also believed to have been involved in the Paris attacks via calls from Belgium, was killed in that raid.) Friday's raid reportedly involved a shootout that ended with Abdeslam being brought into custody. Abdeslam is a brother of one of the suicide attackers in Paris, and he is believed to have driven three suicide bombers to one of the attack sites. "We got him," Belgium's asylum minister said about Abdeslam Friday, per Sky News.