REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BRUSSELS -- Belgian police arrested several suspects in Brussels on Saturday during raids connected to the Paris attacks, including one who was in the French capital at the time of the carnage, officials said.

The arrests -- local media said three people were detained -- were in connection with a vehicle found near the Bataclan concert hall where the majority of the 129 victims were killed, they said.

The arrests were in the poor Brussels district of Molenbeek, which has been linked to several other past terror plots amid concerns Belgium has become a hotbed of European militancy.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said there had been "several" arrests and told RTBF television: "It is believed or suspected that one of these people was in Paris last night."

Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said separately that the arrests in Molenbeek "can be seen in connection with a grey Polo car rented in Belgium" found near the Bataclan.

"The person who rented the car was Belgian. We know this from his brother," said Geens, adding the brother had been arrested.

Parking tickets from Molenbeek were found inside the car with Belgian license plates, Belgian media said. In Paris, several witness reported that some of the attackers arrived in a vehicle with Belgian licence plates.

Separately the Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, said one of the vehicles used in Friday's attacks in the French capital was registered in Belgium and hired by a French national living there.

That Frenchman and two others travelling with him were arrested by Belgian police during a traffic stop in another vehicle, the prosecutor said in Paris, adding that they were not known to French intelligence.

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