A possible "Belgian Charlie Hebdo" was averted Thursday after police killed two suspects with ties to ISIS who were planning a terrorist attack in the country, Fox News reported.
The suspects were killed in anti-terrorism raids throughout Belgium, with one in an apartment in the city of Verviers near the border with Germany. Authorities said the local ISIS-related "terror cell" was about to carry out a major attack within the coming days.
"The suspects immediately and for several minutes opened fire with military weaponry and handguns on specials units of the federal police before they were neutralized," Eric Van Der Sypt, a federal prosecutor, said according to the New York Daily News.
"We've averted a Belgian Charlie Hebdo," an unnamed police official told Fox News.
Several others were arrested during Belgium's sweeping investigation into militant travelers returning from Syria and Iraq.
There is a growing concern among European officials about homegrown radicals who leave for the Middle East and return to launch attacks in their home countries.
Investigators are not yet sure if the suspects killed are linked to last week's Paris attacks that left a total of 17 people dead. Belgium's terror alert level was raised to level three, the second highest, the Daily News reported.
Also arrested Thursday was a man Belgium authorities believe supplied the weapons used by a gunman in last Friday's hostage situation at a kosher supermarket in Paris. The gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed by police.
The unnamed arms dealer, being held in Charleroi, Belgium, originally told police he cheated Coulibaly in a car sale. But evidence later showed he negotiated with Coulibaly over the sale of ammunition for a 7.62 mm caliber weapon, Fox News reported.
"The man is being held by the judge in Charleroi on suspicion of arms dealing," a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecution told the station. "Further investigations will have to show whether there is a link with the events in Paris."
