Brussels shooting: man with ‘radical’ Syrian links arrested

French police have arrested 29-year-old Frenchman Medhi Nemmouche for the suspected shooting of four people at the Jewish museum in central Brussels, which left three people dead and one person badly injured.

Police said Mr Nemmouche was arrested on Friday in Marseille, and that a rifle, a pistol and large amounts of ammunition were found in his possession.

Mr Nemmouche has reportedly admitted to the killings in a video.

French and Belgian prosecutors said he had spent a year in Syria after becoming radicalised during the last of five stays in jail in France, and that he was already known to French security agencies.

Foreign Minister Didier Reynders was in the area at the time of the shooting, and said witnesses had told him the suspected gunman was carrying bags when he entered the museum.

Police released a 30-second video clip from the museum’s security cameras showing a man wearing a dark cap, sunglasses and a blue jacket enter the building, take a Kalashnikov rifle out of a bag and shoot into a room before calmly walking out.

Mr Nemmouche is being held on charges of murder, attempted murder and possession of weapons.

Jewish community officials have drawn parallels between the Brussels shooting and the 2012 killing of four Jews at a school in France by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, Mohamed Merah.

Security around all Jewish institutions in Belgium was raised to the highest level after the shooting.

About half of Belgium’s 42,000-strong Jewish community lives in Brussels.