UPDATE: French police have issued a wanted notice with a photo for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old man born in Brussels, who they is dangerous and should not be approached.
Security services across Europe are on the hunt for a suspect who was “directly involved” in Friday’s attacks, after a getaway car was found in a Paris suburb. According to Reuters, three AK-47s were discovered in the vehicle, similar to those used in the attacks, suggesting an eighth man fled and remains at large.
On Sunday afternoon, French national police posted a bulletin requesting information about a second suspect, 26-year-old Abdeslam Salah.
Salah is reportedly one of three brothers, including Ibrahim Abdeslam, whom The Washington Post has identified as one of the suicide bombers, via an anonymous French intelligence official. The three are French citizens who live in Belgium.
Salah is wanted in connection to the rental of a Volkswagen Polo used by the terrorists that attacked the Bataclan.
French officials revealed on Saturday they believe eight men carried out the attacks. Seven died, six by detonating suicide vests, while police shot a seventh. On Saturday, the Islamic State praised the “eight” men that carried out the killings. Security forces have extending a dragnet across much of the Europe in search of remaining suspect.
Police officers inspect a French car at a check point set at a road near Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015
Seven people were taken into questioning by French authorities on Sunday, including relatives of Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, the 29-year old French national who was one of the seven assailants who died on Friday.
Mostefaï, who was of Algerian descent, had a criminal record for minor offences stretching between 2004 and 2010. However, French intelligence services started taking an interest in the father-of-one after 2010 due to his links radical preachers at a mosque near Chartres, west of the French capital.
The killer is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2013. “That is when we lost track of him,” a French official told the Washington Post. According to Le Monde, Mostefai blew himself up at the Bataclan, the scene of the greatest number of fatalities.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed on Sunday that a black Seat Leon with arms onboard had been found in the suburb of Montreuil, and the vehicle had been used in the attacks. The prosecutor said that three coordinated teams carried out the violence that killed at least 129 people. French President François Hollande described the atrocities on Friday as an “act of war.”
Pictures of victims are placed behind candles outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015
Hollande was due to join leaders of the Group of 20 nations gathered for a summit meeting in Antalya, Turkey, on Sunday, but the president remained in Paris as French police continue their investigation.
In Belgium, police arrested seven men, one of whom one was linked to the rental of a Volkswagen Polo used by the three terrorists that attacked the Bataclan. Two of the dead assailants had lived near Brussels, French police confirmed on Sunday.
WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:
- 129 dead, 352 injured, 99 critically
- Restaurants, football stadium, rock concert attacked
- Attacker named as 29-year-old Omar Ismail Mostefai
- French border controls increased, state of emergency declared
- Seven extremists in three teams carried out attacks