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Europe

The Latest: Brussels airport police say security was poor

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Police and a soldier secure an area outside an abandoned hotel while a wooded area around the hotel is searched, in Marke, Belgium, Thursday, March 31, 2016. Authorities are searching a wooded, residential area close to the French border amid reports that the action is linked to the recent arrest of a man in Paris suspected of planning an attack. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

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    Image 2 of 3

    Soldiers search a wooded area in Marke, Belgium, Thursday, March 31, 2016. Authorities are searching a wooded, residential area close to the French border amid reports that the action is linked to the recent arrest of a man in Paris suspected of planning an attack. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

  • 83bb0fd6-
    Image 3 of 3

    A soldier searches a wooded area in Marke, Belgium, Thursday, March 31, 2016. Authorities are searching a wooded, residential area close to the French border amid reports that the action is linked to the recent arrest of a man in Paris suspected of planning an attack. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

BRUSSELS – The Latest on the extremist attacks in Brussels and Paris (all times local):

12:10 p.m.

Brussels airport police say they criticized security at Belgium's main transport hub well ahead of the March 22 attacks.

In an open letter to their superiors and the airport authorities that they provided to The Associated Press Thursday, police said they had sent "strong daily signals regarding the overall security at the airport."

They complained that "there had not been any security control of passengers or luggage from the airport complex right up to the centralized body searches" area.

The letter said the lack of security was such that police fear "scouts were sent out to assess the security lapses and plan terror."

The airport police also complain that too many airport employees have criminal backgrounds.

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11:05 a.m.

A lawyer for Salah Abdeslam, a prime suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, says his client wants to cooperate with the French authorities and wants to be transferred to France from his prison in Belgium.

Lawyer Cedric Moisse said Abdeslam is not resisting extradition after his March 18 arrest, and would want it to happen rather quickly.

Abdeslam is accused of helping to plan and execute the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. After crossing back into Belgium the day after the attacks he was Europe's No. 1 fugitive until Belgian authorities caught him on March 18.