The Belgian capital of Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union and a popular tourist destination, took on the look of a war zone on Saturday as army and police personnel patrolled the city streets acting on information that Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in last week's Paris attacks, is hiding in the city.

According to the reports, the 26-year-old spoke to his friends via Skype, even as his brother urged him to surrender to the police. Following intelligence inputs, the Belgian government has announced highest threat level in the city. Abdeslam managed to slip past French security forces after the Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead, and is said to be in a possession of a suicide bomb.Usually crowded sites were cordoned off for visitors and public events, including all football games, stood cancelled on Saturday.

Public transport was shut down as the police carried out security checks across Brussels. The police had discovered a cache of weapons during a search operation a little earlier, increasing levels of anxiety. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said that the decision to heighten threat alert level came about after the government received “quite precise information about the risk of an attack.”


The police think that more suspects may be hiding in Brussels, Interior Minister Jan Jambon was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. "We are following the situation minute by minute," he said. "There is no reason to hide that. There is a real threat but we are doing everything possible day and night to face up to this situation.”

Even as the manhunt continues, citizens took to social media to share pictures of their surroundings with police checks at almost all major streets and provided updates, as the situation continues to be tense across the city.

Here’s a selection: