Brussels lockdown: 5 more arrested as Belgian police thank public for Twitter cat storm

Belgian police have conducted five more house searches in Brussels that led to five more arrests as the city remained on maximum alert on 23 November.

A statement from the country's federal prosecutor said 21 people have been put in custody since Brussels went into lockdown over a "credible, immediate threat". The army was deployed on the streets of the Belgian capital, with the subway and shops closed, while major events were postponed.

The prosecutor said €26,000 (£18,250, $27,660) was seized during one of the searches but no firearms or explosives were recovered. He also confirmed a BMW spotted near Liege, which some alleged contained Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam, had no links with the investigation.

All other items seized during house searches were being examined, the prosecutors said. Abdeslam is suspected of being among the attackers who killed more than 130 people and injured 350 in the Paris attacks 10 days ago. It is unclear whether he is among the five people arrested.

A request by Belgium police for members of the public not to share information of anti-terrorism raids on social media prompted an inventive response from Twitter users, who shared images of cats under the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown.

The hilarious response demonstrated the good humour of the Belgium people even in times of crisis, as they endeavoured in the most imaginative way possible to support the police services. The images of cute kittens countered those of violence that usually accompany anti-terror raids.

Belgian police acknowledged the efforts of netizens to stop tweeting details about police operations with a light-hearted tweet: "For all the cats that helped us yesterday evening...Help yourselves! #BrusselsLockdown."