Convicted ISIS recruiter who 'planned imminent terrorist attack in France' is among seven arrested as police use grenades in raids in Belgium and Paris

The Foreign Office has confirmed that Briton David Dixon (pictured) died in the terror attacks

A Briton who has been missing since the deadly terror attacks in Brussels has been confirmed dead.

The family of Briton David Dixon, 53, who is originally from Hartlepool but was living in the Belgian capital, said they had received 'the most terrible and devastating news'.

At least 32 people were killed and 270 injured when suicide bombs ripped through the airport and a Metro station on Tuesday morning.

A statement issued on behalf of Mr Dixon's family said: 'This morning we received the most terrible and devastating news about our beloved David. 

'At this most painful time our family would gratefully appreciate it if we could be left alone to grieve in private. Please respect our wishes.'

A statement from the Foreign Office said: 'We can confirm David Dixon lost his life in the attacks which took place in Brussels on Tuesday 22 March 2016. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time and our Embassy staff are continuing to support them.

'We know of seven British nationals who were injured in the attacks - three are still being treated in hospital. Our Embassy staff are working to assist all British nationals affected.'

Mr Dixon had been missing since the Metro blast, and his family previously said they were 'anxiously waiting' and hoping for 'good news' about him. 

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: 'I am deeply saddened to hear David Dixon was killed in the Brussels attacks. My thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.'

The mysterious ‘Man in White’ who was pictured alongside the Brussels airport bombers just moments before they killed 14 people has been identified by US officials and is on a terror watchlist, it has emerged.

American authorities are said to have identified Europe’s most wanted man and found him on their terror database as he remains on-the-run after fleeing the airport when his bomb failed to explode.

It emerged as it was revealed the brothers behind the atrocities in the Belgian capital on Tuesday were also on a US terror watchlist.

US officials have identified the 'Man in White' (right) and claim he is on a terrorism database alongside Belgian brothers Ibrahim (left) and Khalid El Bakraoui, who were also listed as potential terror threats before the attack

Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were both listed as potential terror threats on US databases, although it is unclear at this stage which terrorism databases they were listed on.

Earlier, it was revealed how Ibrahim El Bakraoui was arrested as an alleged extremist nine months before bringing terror to the heart of Europe.

Grinning for the camera, the suicide bomber is pictured in a police mugshot, after being detained last summer by Turkish authorities. 

Terrorist: Ibrahim El Bakraoui smiles in his mugshot taken by Turkish police after he was arrested in Gaziantep last summer

It came after the jihadist was captured just a few miles from the border with ISIS's heartland in Syria.

Police in the country returned El Bakraoui to Europe, warning that he was a known extremist who posed a terror threat to his home country of Belgium, according to the Turkish president.

But officials in the Netherlands and Belgium let the jihadist walk free, saying he could not be jailed because there was no evidence he had committed a crime.

Turkish authorities revealed today that after being returned to Europe, El Bakraoui returned to Turkey once again, only to be deported for a second time in August.

On Tuesday morning, the El Bakraoui brothers took part in the devastating attacks on Brussels' airport and Metro system, killing 34 people in total.

Police are now still hunting for their accomplice known as the 'Man in White', as well as at least five other unidentified suspects linked to the atrocity.The new mugshot of Ibrahim El Bakraoui was taken by police in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep after he was arrested in June 2015.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed yesterday that his officials had deported the terrorist to the Netherlands and said that Europe 'ignored our warnings' about the danger he posed.

'One of the attackers in Brussels is an individual we detained in Gaziantep in June 2015 and deported,' Erdogan said. 

'We reported the deportation to the Belgian Embassy in Ankara on July 14, 2015, but he was later set free.

'Belgium ignored our warning that this person is a foreign fighter.' 

Carnage: There were scenes of devastation at the main terminal at Brussels national airport

Last night the uncle of Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui said the brothers had worked as cleaners at the airport they targeted.

They would have gained intimate knowledge of the terminal destroyed in Tuesday’s carnage – and should have undergone security checks.

Their uncle told the Daily Mail: ‘They worked cleaning at the airport and in a restaurant. They didn’t finish high school in the end. They cleaned the airport in the summer months.’

Last night the Belgian prosecutor said the airport links were being investigated. 

Belgian police questioned prime terror suspect Salah Abdeslam for just one hour within four days because he was 'too tired' to be quizzed, it is claimed

A catastrophic police blunder allowed Paris bombings logistics chief Salah Abdeslam to remain at large for more than three months, Belgian police have admitted.

A dedicated beat officer gave information about the whereabouts of Abdeslam to superiors on December 7 and urged them to pass it on to the country’s anti-terrorist police.

But the confidential report – which cited the address 79 rue des Quatre Vents, Molenbeek, where Abdeslam was finally apprehended – was inexplicably not passed onto the federal bureau.

His RIR ‘Informative Report’ remained on the shelves at the Malines Police headquarters instead.

This was while Abdeslam was Europe’s most wanted man as the most high-profile fugitive of the Paris terror attacks that killed 130.

The news comes as it was revealed the sole reason he gave up his suicide mission at the Stade de France in November was that he did not have a ticket. He made this confession to Belgium police after being arrested in Brussels a week ago. 

It is also claimed he was also planning a multiple shooting and suicide bomb attack in Brussels over Easter similar to those in Paris in November. 

Last night it emerged that Belgian police questioned Abdeslam for just one hour between his arrest on Friday and the devastating Brussels attacks four days later because he was 'tired', raising fears that they missed the chance to stop the atrocities.

In the latest in a long list of bungles, the hour-long interrogation at a Bruges prison on Saturday produced no intelligence about the impending carnage because investigators took a chronological approach, asking first about the Paris attacks in November.

This was in spite of the discovery of bomb making materials and Abdeslam's fingerprints at a Schaerbeek safe house days before and mounting evidence that the terror cell was active and ready to strike.

The interrogations were curtailed because Abdeslam was still recovering from surgery after being shot in the leg when he was arrested, a senior Belgian security official said on condition of anonymity.

Stadium: Abdeslam said the sole reason he gave up his suicide mission at the Stade de France (pictured on November 13) is that he did not have a ticket

'He seemed very tired and he had been operated on the day before,' the official told Politico. Another source added: 'They were not thinking about the possibilities of what happened on Tuesday morning.'

Abdeslam's lawyer, Sven Mary, confirmed how Europe's most dangerous terrorist had been treated with kid gloves by police, raising concerns that authorities missed the opportunity to prevent the Brussels atrocities that followed just days later.

It comes amid speculation in the Belgian media that Abdeslam was the mastermind behind the terror plots in Brussels, which killed 31 innocent people and injured hundreds more.

Belgian public broadcaster VRT said today that the fugitive was planning a multiple shooting and suicide bomb attack in the capital similar to those in Paris in November.

Citing no source, VRT said investigators believed Abdeslam and two others, one of them a man arrested with him on Friday, planned to use assault rifles and riot guns to cause mass casualties in Brussels while others would blow themselves up.

Salah Abdeslam (pictured being captured last Friday) has been 'treated with kid gloves by police', raising concerns that authorities missed the opportunity to prevent the Brussels attacks that followed just days later

'The terrorists were planning the same scenario as in Paris, only it partially failed,' VRT said.

It is thought the attacks at Brussels airport and on the city's Metro system were brought forward in light of Abdeslam's capture - with jihadists fearing he may betray them following his arrest on Friday.

His dramatic detainment in Molenbeek signalled the net could be closing on those he had plotted with, and his fellow terror suspects may have feared he could provide clues as to their identities and their plans to unleash terror on the streets. 

The Brussels terrorists may have been plotting to make a radioactive bomb after it emerged 11 nuclear power plant workers have had their site access revoked amid fears of 'insider help'.

Jihadi brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui had secretly filmed the daily routine of Belgium's nuclear programme chief, before they blew themselves up at Brussels airport and on a Metro train.

It is thought the brothers' spying operation was possible preparation for a kidnap plot to force him to let them into one of Belgium's two atomic facilities. However, it is likely they switched targets to the less well-guarded airport and Maelbeek Metro station after authorities became suspicious.

It emerged last night that 11 workers at the Tihange nuclear power plant, 40 miles south-east of Brussels, have had their access badges withdrawn – leading to speculation the bombers may have been seeking insider help.

The terror cell responsible for the Paris and Brussels attacks was planning to attack an unidentified nuclear power station or try and steal materials from it for a 'dirty bomb'. Pictured is the power plant in Doel, Belgium

Seven of the passes were withdrawn last week, and last Friday additional soldiers were deployed to protect the plant, which has three reactors.

If the terrorists had struck there, it could have caused a catastrophe. The plant lies in a heavily populated area about 50 miles from each of Belgium's borders with Germany, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. One Belgian plant is only 90 miles from Kent.

Alternatively, the brothers could have been plotting to steal nuclear material to make a dirty bomb.

Claude Moniquet, who investigates threats to Europe's nuclear sector, told NBC News: 'The terrorist cell naively believed they could use him to penetrate a lab to obtain nuclear material to make a dirty bomb.'

The heightened security at the facility, and the police raids on ISIS boltholes last week which led to the capture of Paris terrorist Salah Abdeslam, may have prompted the bombers to switch their targets to Brussels airport and Metro station, where they killed 31 people and injured 270 others on Tuesday.

Belgium's La Derniere Heure newspaper quoted a police source as saying the el-Bakraoui brothers had hidden cameras in bushes outside the home of the head of the country's nuclear research and development programme.

A Belgian prosecutor refused to divulge the individual's identity 'for obvious security reasons'.

Tihange nuclear power plant is about an hour's drive away from the Belgian capital where the attacks occurred

Belgium's federal agency for nuclear control stressed the importance of not revealing the name of the person involved so as 'not to endanger the enquiry or nuclear security' or indeed the person involved and their family.

The footage was found in December during a police raid in Brussels linked to the Paris attacks a month earlier. The filming confounded investigators at first because it showed the entrance to the director's home in Flanders, an area outside the capital.

But after watching all 12 hours' worth of footage, detectives drew the chilling conclusion that the fanatics were trying to gain access to an atomic facility.

Armed troops were sent to defend French and Belgian nuclear facilities following the discovery and both countries' nuclear programmes were put on the highest state of alert. 

The key figure in the alleged 'dirty bomb' plot is Mohammed Bakkali, 28, from Brussels, who was arrested on suspicion of helping to plan the Paris massacre in November.

The video footage of the nuclear power plant director is believed to have been found during a raid at his flat. He is due to appear in court at the end of the month.