BRUSSELS- Belgian authorities identified the gunman killed in a raid targeting suspects in the Paris attacks as a 35-year-old Algerian and said police had detained two others.
Investigators believe much of the planning and preparation for the Nov. 13 shooting and bombing rampage in Paris that killed 130 people was conducted in Brussels by young French and Belgian nationals, some of whom fought as militants in Syria.
On Tuesday, six Belgian and French police officers arrived to search a flat in a Brussels suburb and came under a barrage of automatic weapons fire through a door from at least two people barricaded inside, injuring four officers.
A special forces sniper shot dead gunman Mohamed Belkaid when he tried to fire at police from a window, prosecutors said.
They said a Kalashnikov assault rifle were lying next to Belkaid’s body, and that he had been living illegally in Belgium though was known to police only for a case of theft in 2014.
The apartment in southern Brussels also contained a large cache of ammunition and an Islamic State flag, investigating prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said.
Investigators were holding a man admitted to hospital near Brussels with a broken leg that required surgery. The person who brought him to hospital fled as local police arrived.
Another suspect was detained for questioning after a further house search near the scene of the shooting.
Prime Minister Charles Michel summoned security and intelligence chiefs for an emergency sitting of Belgium’s national security council on Wednesday to review the country’s level of alertness and possible extra measures.
“The threat remains,” Michel told RTL radio, adding that for now Belgium would be on the second highest alert level of three.

Source: Reuters, 16 March 2016