A police source confirmed the operation, without giving details of any arrests.

Kurdish sources said only that some women were questioned by police.

RTL-tvi television, citing unnamed sources, said the police searched a Kurdish cultural centre in the eastern town of Verviers and seized a number of documents.

It added that 40 women were questioned amid suspicions that they had taken part in PKK training at covert camps in Belgium.

There was no word from the federal prosecutor's office.