Five people have been charged with terrorism after raids in Belgium.

Belgian police foiled a terrorist plot when they stormed an apartment in the east of the country yesterday, killing 2 men and injuring a 3rd.

It comes as EU Foreign Ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss the heightened threat of terrorism in Europe.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Irish people in Belgium to remain vigilant, after the country raised its national threat level.

"Citizens are advised to remain vigilant, to be aware of their surroundings, to maintain awareness of news bulletins and to follow the security advice of the Belgian authorities," the department says.

It comes after terror suspects killed in a shoot-out were poised to kill several police officers in the street - and had a number of police uniforms stashed in their hide-out.

Officials in Brussels revealed that AK-47s, knives, Kalashnikovs and explosives were found with the uniforms and fake ID at an apartment in eastern Belgium.

Two suspects were killed during the raid on the apartment in Verviers, one of 10 co-ordinated raids across Belgium, which led to 15 arrests.

The details emerged as hundreds of police across Europe raided properties targeting Islamist terrorists.

More than 20 people were held in Germany, France and Belgium amid fears of another terror attack, following the Paris atrocities. 

In Belgium, Jewish schools were closed today and security forces are surrounding the police HQ in Brussels.

At a press conference this morning, Belgian authorities said 13 people had been detained in Belgium and two arrested in France following last night's gun battle.

Eric Van der Sypt, a Belgian federal magistrate, said a dozen searches had led to the discovery of military-style weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles.

In Germany, meanwhile, police said they had raided 11 properties linked to radical Islamists, shortly after the Belgian operation.

The German arrests, involving 250 police, followed months of investigation into five Turkish citizens, aged 31 to 44.

The Turkish citizens are suspected of "preparing a serious act of violence against the state in Syria" and money laundering, police said.

In France, 10 people were arrested overnight in anti-terrorism raids in the region.

The raids targeted individuals linked to Amedy Coulibaly, who attacked a kosher supermarket in Paris, leaving four hostages dead.

Prosecutor's spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre says the arrests began overnight and continued in three towns on Friday morning.

Police in Paris also confirmed that a city train station - the Gare de L'Est - had been evacuated and closed this morning over a bomb threat.

The Gare de l'Est is one of several major train stations in Paris, serving cities in eastern Paris and countries to the east.

Also in France, a series of funerals is taking place for the cartoonists killed in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.

Among them is that of the magazine's editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, who will be buried in Pontoise, north-west of Paris.

Authorities in Belgium signalled they were ready for more trouble by raising the national terror alert level from 2 to 3, the second-highest level.

"It shows we have to be extremely careful," Mr Van der Sypt said. 

The Verviers suspects "were extremely well-armed men" equipped with automatic weapons, he said. Some of the individuals "were in Syria and had come back," Mr Van der Sypt added.

Originally published January 15th