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Suspect admits to being Brussels airport attacker known as 'man in hat,' prosecutors say

Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini has confessed to being at the scene of the bombings at the Brussels airport on March 22, Belgium's federal prosecutor says.

The massive hunt for the "man in the hat" seen in the Brussels airport bombings appears to be over.

Belgium's federal prosecutor said that Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini had confessed to being at the scene of the attacks in Brussels on March 22.

Speculation had been mounting since Abrini's arrest on Friday that he was the suspect pictured in surveillance video from the airport minutes before two blasts ripped through the building.

That video showed a man in a light-colored jacket and dark hat pushing a luggage cart loaded with a black bag at the airport, alongside two other men.

Those men — Najim Laachraoui andIbrahim El Bakraoui — blew themselves up in the attack, leaving Belgian authorities searching for the third suspect.

Police had released more footage showing the so-called "man in white" or "man in the hat" on Thursday in a public appeal for information as to his whereabouts and escape route — while noting the suspect had ditched the light-colored jacket.

Belgium's federal prosecutor on Sunday said that Abrini had "confessed his presence at the crime scene."

"He explained having thrown away his vest in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterwards," the prosecutor added in an emailed statement.

The prosecutor earlier had confirmed Abrini has been charged with "terrorist murders" and participating in a terror group in relation to the Paris terror attacks last November.

Abrini had been filmed on security footage at a gas station with Salah Abdeslam, one of the alleged Paris attackers, just two days before the terror spree in the French capital, which left 130 dead.

His apparent confession to being in the Brussels Airport adds another link to the attacks in Belgium and the Paris massacres.

The announcement of the new arrests and charges came as 50 police officers were on the scene of an anti-terror operation in the Brussels suburb of Etterbeek, with roads closed off and nearby people evacuated

This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.