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Belgian police on Tuesday detained eight people suspected of recruiting jihadists to fight in Syria and raising funds for the Islamic State (ISIS) group, federal prosecutors said, according to AFP.

The prosecutor's office said the eight were detained following raids on nine homes in the Dutch-speaking towns of Antwerp, Bruges and Sint-Niklaas as well as the Brussels commune of Schaerbeek.

"Eight persons have been taken along for examination," it said, adding a judge would decide later whether or not to detain them further.

"The persons concerned are suspected to be involved with recruiting people to leave for Syria and with having financially supported ISIS," it said.

Belgium is the EU country with the highest per capita number of fighters who have joined jihad in Syria and Iraq, a figure estimated at 465.

No weapons nor explosives were found in the raids, according to AFP.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union headquarters on March 22, killing 32 people.

Those attacks were claimed by ISIS, which controls parts of Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror strikes in Europe over the last year, including attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead.

In October, two police officers were stabbed in the Belgian capital, in what local authorities investigated as a terrorist attack.

The attack came two months after two policewomen were wounded in Charleroi by a machete-wielding man who shouted "Allahu Akbar", an attack claimed by ISIS.

Radicalization is a phenomenon that has plagued not just Belgium but other countries in Europe as well, including Germany, France and Austria – to name a few.

AFP contributed to this report.