International manhunt begins as massacre investigation gathers the facts

Monday 16 November 2015

Police forces across Europe are hunting a man believed to be linked to the cell of seven terrorists that slaughtered 132 people in a wave of attacks in Paris on Friday night.

Salah Abdeslam, who was born in Belgium, is currently the most wanted man in Europe – it’s believed that he’s a brother of one of the terrorists who died during the attacks.

There has been wide speculation that one or more of the seven terrorists came to Europe recently seeking cover among the wave of refugees desperately seeking to flee the bloodshed in Syria, although that has not yet been confirmed.

Abdeslam is thought to have rented the car used by one of the three groups of attackers – the vehicle was used to get the gunmen to the Bataclan concert hall where at least 89 people were murdered at a rock concert.

One of the dead attackers has been named as Omar Ismail Mostefai – a 29-year-old originally from Algeria. He was identified through a fingerprint, and has been highlighted as a potential radical in 2010.

Several members of his immediate family are already in police custody.

Another dead attacker – yet to be named – is a 30-year-old Frenchman with a string of criminal convictions and who was on a radical Islamist watchlist.

Britain’s terror threat level remains at the second-highest rating at “severe”, and Home Secretary Theresa May has urged Britons to remain vigilant.