BRUSSELS: Fugitive Salah Abdeslam may have eluded capture two days after the Paris attacks when Belgian police waited overnight to search a Brussels house where he may have been hiding, a Belgian federal prosecutor said Thursday.

“Did he escape? Did he not escape? Nobody knows,” prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt said.

Van der Sypt said police had waited until 10am on November 16 to move on the house in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels because of various factors, including a Belgian law banning home searches between 9pm and 5am except for certain crimes.

Authorities also wanted to be certain no harm would come to the 200-300 worshippers who attend early morning prayers at a nearby mosque, as well as children on their way to school, the prosecutor said.