Belgium searches 14 houses in terrorism probe, questions seven people

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgian police have conducted 14 house searches in a terrorism investigation, the federal public prosecutor’s office said on Thursday, adding seven people were taken in for questioning.

“They are suspected, among other things, of preparing a terrorist attack. The specific targets of the attack had not yet been determined,” it said in a statement.

A judge will decide later whether they will be charged.

The house searches took place in the cities of Antwerp, Liege and Ghent, and in the Brussels region.

The prosecutor’s office did not immediately comment on whether the case had any link to the Paris Olympics, which begins on Friday.

The French anti-terrorism prosecutor told Reuters no arrest or search occurred in France as part of the investigation.

The perpetrators of the 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed and 368 wounded, largely planned and coordinated them from Belgium, and several of the attackers were Belgian nationals or residents.

In 2016, bombings at Brussels airport killed 34 people and injured 340. Among those convicted for the attacks was Salah Abdeslam, who was also the main suspect in the Paris attacks trial.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Marta Fiorin, Geert De Clercq, additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon from Paris; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Bernadette Baum and Barbara Lewis)