Synagogues in Brussels were advised to shut down on Saturday following the decision of the Belgian authorities to raise the terror alert to its highest level in the country’s capital, Brussels, European Jewish Press (EJP) has learned.

The Jewish Central Consistory of Belgium advised the synagogues to close down but some of them decided to stay open for the Shabbat services under reinforced security measures. The Great Synagogue of Brussels, which also houses the Consistory, reportedly remained closed.

Belgium’s decision to raise the terror alert to level 4 follows the warning of an “immediate very serious threat” to Brussels, which is also the seat of the European Union institutions and of NATO.

The decision to raise the terror alert level comes just a week after the Paris attacks, which have revealed terror connections between France and Belgium, left 130 dead and more than 350 injured.

All metro stations in the Belgian capital were closed as a precaution.

Five of the terrorists who perpetrated the Paris attacks, claimed by the Islamic State terror group, had links to France and Belgium, including the mastermind of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin who lived in Molenbeek, a Brussels district known to be a hotbed of jihadism and Islamic radicalism.

Another member of the terrorist group which carried out the Paris attack, Salah Abdeslam, 26, is the subject of an international search warrant. He was last seen driving toward the Belgian border, when police stopped and questioned him a few hours after the attacks, not knowing that he was allegedly involved. His whereabouts are unknown. Abdeslam is also from Molenbeek.

Several Belgian unconfirmed press reports said that Abdelslam had been seen in the Brussels district of Anderlecht Thursday night.

The last time Brussels was put on maximum alert was in May 2014 when a gunman shot dead four people at the Jewish Museum. At that time, Jewish schools, synagogues and other institutions were put on level four.

(Source: EJP)