That concludes our live coverage of the anti-terror operation in Verviers, eastern Belgium. You can read more on this story here.

The mayor of Verviers has told the BBC's Piers Schofield that the situation is now calm and under control. There is a significant police presence around official buildings, our correspondent adds.

AFP news agency reports that six to 10 young people from Verviers have gone to fight in Syria over recent months.

Belgium's terror alert level has now been raised to three, its second highest level, and officials say that further arrests are expected.

Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt says no police or members of the public were harmed, and that police had targeted a group returning from Syria who had been about to launch "large-scale" attacks.

Here's a recap of the events so far - Belgian police have killed two men who opened fire on them during a raid in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers. A third was arrested. This was one of about 10 raids taking place in the country, in both Verviers and the Brussels region.

AFP news agency is carrying a report from private Belgian TV channel RTL-TVI that police had been bugging the targets of tonight's raid in Vervier for the past week.

Belgian federal prosecutor's office spokesman Eric Van der Sypt says: "No link is established at this stage with the attacks in Paris."

Damian Grammaticas
Europe correspondent

Our Europe correspondent says there are unconfirmed reports that the targets of today's raid may have bee planning an attack against police buildings.

He adds: "There appears to be a fear there is a wider connection to this and that is why we are seeing raids and arrests apparently being reported in Brussels."

Belgian magistrate Eric Van der Sypt says the men targeted in the Verviers raid were "extremely well-armed" with automatic weapons.

Image source, EPA

Belgian French-language newspaper L'Avenir quotes a witness from the scene, external as saying "it looked like war" when the raid happened. "At first I thought it was a gas explosion... then I heard the shots. I realised it was more serious."

The Belgian authorities say that the 10 anti-terrorist raids which took place around the country were all linked to suspects who had returned from fighting in Syria.

tweets:, external This Belgium raid, rather than Paris attacks, seems to be the first major incident of returning Syrian jihadists posing a threat to Europe.

Belgium is no stranger to the threat from militant Islamists. In May 2014 four people were shot dead at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, has since been charged with murder in connection with the attack.

According to the federal prosecutor's office, a judge granted about 10 search warrants in locations which include Brussels and Verviers, at the prosecutor's office's request.

Some more pictures from the scene in Verviers following tonight's raid:

Image source, EPA

Image source, AFP

The federal prosecutor's office also says in the press conference that the terror threat level in Belgium has been raised to three.

During the press conference, the spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office says Vervier police were aided in the raid by a "special security arm" of the Belgian police force.

Marie-Pierre is a paediatrician in the area, she emailed to say: "I was doing consultations and saw the scene unfold in front of my office. I had to hide with my patients."

During the press conference, a member of the Federal Prosecutor's office says the suspects were planning to "imminently" carry out attacks in Belgium, and opened fire on police when the raid began. No police or witnesses were injured during the operation, he adds.