Police probing Paris attacks find suicide vests in Brussels flat: prosecutors

Belgian police have found three vests for possible use in suicide attacks, traces of explosives and a fingerprint of fugitive Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam at a flat in Brussels, prosecutors said on Friday.

The discovery in an apartment in the Schaerbeek area of the Belgian capital was made during a search on December 10, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement, without clarifying why they were releasing the details now.

"In the framework of the investigation opened after the Paris attacks the federal prosecutor confirms that during a house search conducted December 10th in an apartment on the third floor, Rue Berg? in Schaerbeek, material that can be used to fabricate explosives as well as traces of TATP were found," the prosecutor said.

"This apartment was rented under a false identity that might have been used by a person already in custody in this case," the statement added.

"Three handmade belts that might be used to transport explosives as well as a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam were also discovered."

Police have been hunting for Abdeslam since suicide bombers and assailants firing automatic weapons killed 130 people and wounded many more in a wave of attacks across Paris on November 13.

The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.