Raids across Belgium lead to 16 arrests but suspected Paris gunman is not among them amid reports he was spotted on Sunday evening
Salah Abdelslam, Europe's most wanted man, was once again reportedly spotted by police but managed to escape capture and was thought to be heading towards the German border in a BMW.
Belgian federal prosecutors admitted in a midnight press conference that a massive police and army operation launched across the nation on Sunday evening had failed to catch the Islamist accused of participating in the Paris attacks.
Salah was spotted by Belgian police near the city of Liege at about 7.30pm on Sunday evening but managed to evade officers, Dernier Heure reported.
The man then headed in the direction of Germany on the E40 motorway and again avoided a police checkpoint set up to intercept him.
Prosecutors confirmed only that Abdelsam was not among the 16 people arrested in 19 raids on Sunday and refused to take questions about his whereabouts.
Brussels remained in lockdown with a vast security presence in the city centre and metro services suspended into Monday morning.
The morning after the Friday 13 attacks, Abdelslam was stopped by French police near the Belgian border in a car with two other men but was allowed to proceed because police did not yet know of his alleged involvement in the Paris massacre.
He has since reportedly been spotted several times at locations across the Belgian capital.
Brussels police revealed that during Sunday's operations they shot at a car that approached a roadblock in the Molenbeek area of the city.
The car escaped but police later found it with a wounded individual inside, according to Eric Van der Sypt, federal magistrate.
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