Suspect held over Jewish museum killings in which three were shot dead had ...

Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, captured by chance at Marseille coach station

Routine customs check found Kalashnikov assault rifle inside his bag

Wearable camera showed clip of a man claiming responsibility for killings

Nemmouche was known to have spent much of last year fighting in Syria

Published: 18:53 EST, 1 June 2014 | Updated: 19:12 EST, 1 June 2014

A jihadist who went to fight in Syria after being radicalised in a French prison has been arrested on suspicion of shooting three people dead at the Jewish museum in Brussels.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, was captured by chance at Marseille coach station on Friday during a routine customs check.

His bag was found to contain a Kalashnikov assault rifle of the sort used in the Brussels attack on May 24, a revolver and a wearable video camera.

Scroll down for video

Arrested: Mehdi Nemmouche (pictured), 29, was captured by chance at Marseille coach station on Friday

CCTV footage of shooter attacking Brussels Jewish Museum

On it was a short video showing the two guns and a voiceover in which an unseen man claims responsibility for the killings and expresses regret that the device had failed to record the shootings.

Nemmouche, who has barely said a word since his arrest, was known to have spent much of last year fighting in Syria, but had been left free to travel around Europe.

London was among the cities he visited, said Paris prosecutor Francois Mollins.

Referring to a growing problem threatening Britain and France, Mr Mollins said: 'This affair illustrates the danger posed by radicalised individuals who go to fight in Syria.'

The French have insisted that they were unable to keep Nemmouche under surveillance following his last release from prison in 2012 because he travelled to Syria, and then lived in Belgium.

CCTV: A surveillance camera shows a man shooting at the Jewish museum in Brussels, Belgium, on May 24

Scene: The Jewish museum in Brussels. All four shooting victims were hit by bullets to the face and neck

Nemmouche, who is a French national originally from the northern town of Roubaix but currently of no fixed abode, has been compared to French Algerian Al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Merah who murdered seven people three years ago before committing suicide.

'This affair illustrates the danger posed by radicalised individuals who go to fight in Syria'

Francois Mollins, Paris prosecutor

Merah, like Nemmouche from a working class council estate background, was left largely unsupervised by the authorities, despite having spent time in a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

Nemmouche's coach, which arrived at the Saint-Charles station in Marseille, had come from Amsterdam, via Brussels.

He is said to have 'given himself up to police' without a fight once the customs officials alerted them.

Investigation: Forensic experts examine the site of the shooting at the Jewish museum in Brussels on May 24

Tribute: Flowers bearing the words, 'Thou shalt not kill' are set amid candles outside the Jewish Museum

Nemmouche is said to have converted to Islam after serving time in prison for armed robbery.

His former lawyer, Soulifa Badaoui, today said she remembered an 'intelligent, quick-witted' man who was 'respectful and without any particular religious conviction'.

Nemmouche is now being held in a high-security police station, on suspicion of a variety of offences, including murder and having links with a known terrorist group, believed to be Al Qaeda.

He is expected to be extradicted to Belgium, where he will face a criminal trial and a possible life sentence.

Mira and Emmanuel Riva, an Israeli couple in their 50s from Tel Aviv, were two of the killer's victims. They had worked for the Israeli government in the past.

Political reaction: Belgium Interior Minister Joelle Milquet (left) and French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve address the media in Paris yesterday

Giving an update: Belgian Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw speaks at a news conference in Brussels

All four victims of the shooting, who included a French woman who did volunteer work at the museum and a 24-year-old Belgian museum employee, were hit by bullets to the face and neck.

Three died instantly, while there have been conflicting reports about the fourth. Some say he is dead, others that he is 'clinically dead' or 'in a coma'.

Three chilling CCTV videos show the gunman, wearing a cap and sunglasses, calmly walk into the museum, remove a gun from a bag, and then start shooting.

The attack, which lasted just a minute and a half, also left around a dozen other terrified museum visitors in a state of extreme distress.

In 2012 anti-Semitic fanatic Mohamed Merah gunned down seven people in and around the south western city of Toulouse before being killed in a shootout with police.

Found: Marseille coach station in France, where customs officials detained 29-year-old Nemmouche on Friday

DanageL People stand near damaged buildings along a street at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Bustan al-Qasr, Aleppo, on May 28

Flashback: In 2012 anti-Semitic fanatic Mohamed Merah (pictured) gunned down seven people in and around the south western city of Toulouse before being killed in a shootout with police

Among the victims of the 23-year-old Al-Qaeda supporter, who filmed his crimes on a GoPro camera, were three Jewish children and a rabbi who were murdered in front of their school.

In the face of such savagery, security groups have launched numerous clamp-downs on extremists, including in cities like Belgium, which has a large Muslim population.

Anti-Semitic attacks have become all too common in Europe over recent years, with Islamic radicals often behind them.

French and British Islamic radicals are among those who have travelled to Syria to fight in the country's civil war.

Politicians have expressed constant fears that these battle-hardened 'jihadists' will return to their homeland to carry out terrorist crimes.