shooting incidents, but this happened while the siege at the bataclan was still going on. hala. fred pleitgen here in paris. thank you. as that is going on, the investigation continuing also in belgium. a series of raids believed to be connected to the paris attacks and several locations targeting to be associates with the attackers here. i understand at least nine people taken into custody there. as we try to piece together what happened, this network that perhaps in paris and authorities say the raids are tied to bilal hadfi. we have more on the continuing story with ivan watson.
that is correct. the belgian prosecutor s office put out a statement saying that there was an open investigation into bilal hadfi. he is one of the individuals who blew himself up. that investigation has been ongoing for some time, ever since the authorities here have learned that he traveled to syria. so as we understand it, there was an ongoing investigation into his associates, into his network here in belgium that was opened now, as we understand it, for months. it was only after the attack and again, according to the belgian prosecutor, that these raids and these searches were accelerated and that s why they took place today. the three remaining raids and searches that took place later on this afternoon, that was based on information that only emerged since friday s attack. the total raids and searches that took place today can be categorized into those different groupings. one based on an individual that was known to authorities given the fact he had traveled to syria. an ope
nine people. they were looking for links to the paris attacks and looking for the family and entourage of one of the suicide bombers, a man known as bilal hadfi. he was believed to have been in syria since early 2015 until he blew himself up in paris just last week. john. ivan watson with the situation in belgium. let s bring it back to paris. there are developments. news of a third suspected terrorist killed in the raid in the suburb of saint-denis the other night. the suspected planner of the attacks killed in that raid i was just talking about. abdelhamid abaaoud. footage of him about the time that the bataclan attack was going on. what was he doing there? i want to bring in senior
at large? reporter: it is still very much an active manhunt, an international manhunt to be precise, and there is a lot of stepped up activity here across brussels. today as you mentioned there was two sets of raids, a total of nine searches and raids across districts of brussels. the first six raids happened overnight in the early hours of the morning, targeted one of the attackers who was involved in blowing himself up at the stade de france on last friday night. now, that raid actually, believe it or not, was scheduled to take place or those raids were scheduled to take place, part of the investigation into bilal hadfi, several months ago. this is something that s been in the works. and it was only accelerated after last friday s attacks. and certainly a lot of folks are going to have questions as to whether or not there was a lack of moving quickly, if you will, by belgian security forces that could have prevented this individual from participating.
city, but long after the operation at least at this location was over. the locals we talked to say the police came and they blocked off the streets and searched the building. they did this before dawn. then announced it hours later. now the authorities say that they were looking for the family and entourage of bilal hadfi. he was one of the terrorists in the attacks friday night. he is believed to be 19 or 20 years old. a resident of brussels. he is one of three residents in the city who were key suspects in the paris attacks. the belgian authorities say they detained one person so far for questioning in connection with the paris attacks. the belgian connection to the paris raids, it is very important, of course, abdelhamid abaaoud, who is the suspected organizer of the attacks is a belgian citizen.