Fugitive Paris jihadi went to gay bars where staff thought he was a 'rent boy', took drugs

One of the Paris gunmen was a regular in Brussels' gay bars, smoked cannabis and spent most of his days playing on his PlayStation, it has been claimed.

Salah Abdeslam, 26, Europe's most wanted man, has been on the run ever since he took part in the massacre of 130 in Paris last Friday.

It has now emerged that Abdeslam, who was part of the terror cell that gunned down dozens of people in packed cafes and restaurants in Paris, smoked, drank and flirted with men at gay bars in Brussels' Saint Jacques quarter.

'We had him down as a rent boy, he was always hanging out with that kind of crowd,' Julien, the bartender of a club visited by Abdeslam a month ago, told the Sunday Times.

The club's owners, who wanted to remain anonymous, informed the police who are now trawling through CCTV footage of the area.

Abdeslam's brother Ibrahim, who blew himself up outside the Comptoire Voltaire cafe, ran a bar in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, dubbed the 'Jihadi capital of Europe', their close friend Karim told the Sunday Times.

Karim said the bar was closed down a week before the Paris attacks because he used it as a den to sell drugs.

'Brahim [Ibrahim] and Salah spent most of their days smoking hashish and playing on PlayStation in the bar,' he said. 'There was nothing to suggest they were radicalised.'

ISIS, which claimed to be behind the Paris attacks, has been known throw gay people to their death from high buildings.

The terror group has released several propaganda images and videos of suspected homosexuals and adulterers being executed, while those who drank alcohol or smoked are flogged or beaten.

Abdeslam is believed to have rented the two cars used by terrorists in the attacks which left 130 dead and hundreds more wounded.

He is also thought to have driven his brother Ibrahim and a French shooter to four restaurants in the Canal Saint Martin area of Paris where they murdered dozens of people.

The black Seat Leon he drove was found abandoned in Montreuil, eight miles from Paris, with three AK47s and 16 magazines inside.

Abdeslam has been the subject of an international manhunt since the attacks, with 2,000 officers tasked with finding him.

He was believed to be hiding inside an apartment block in the Saint Denis suburb of Paris which was raided by hundreds of special forces soldiers and police on Wednesday.

The attack's mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, his cousin Hasna Ait Boulahcen and a third suspected terrorist were killed in the siege, while eight others were arrested. It is not known if Abdeslam was among them.

It later emerged that Abdeslam has been stopped on the France-Belgium border by police who let him go after he showed them his ID.

Brussels has been locked down in the wake of the Paris attacks, following reports of an 'imminent' Paris style attack.

Its shops and metro station was shot down as hundreds of armed police officers were brought in to patrol empty streets and public spaces.