Brussels, Jan 30 (IANS): Four people were arrested following a total of 22 police raids in Belgium Friday as part of ongoing investigations into terrorist activity in the country.

The police action was directed against a gang that was recruiting people to fight Islamic militants in Syria, Xinhua news agency reported citing Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

The raids took place at several locations across Belgium.

There were 22 raids in all. Half of them took place in the city of Maaseik in north-eastern Belgium, in the Limburg Province, close to the border with the Netherlands.

Two more raids took place separately in Maasmechelen and Houthalen, also in Limburg. There were four raids carried out in Antwerp.

Premises in Brussels, Genk and Kinrooi were also searched.

Belgium remains on high alert following a police clampdown on a major jihadi cell earlier in the month.

Since then, the country's security threat level has been upgraded from 2 to 3 on a scale of 4, and will remain in place until at least Feb 9.