Salah Abdeslam was known to frequent bars in Brussels’ gay quarter

Salah Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French national, is thought to have fled to his hometown after taking part in the Paris attacks last week. 1000 police officers are now on the hunt for him.

Authorities believe that Abdeslam served as a getaway driver for a set of suicide bombers during the attack. He was reportedly a childhood friend of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian “mastermind” of the Paris attacks and Isis militant who died in a police raid on Wednesday.

It has also been reported that Abdeslam was known to frequent bars in the city’s gay quarter. Some media outlets have speculated that he was visiting these bars to steal identification documents or to plot an attack.

But the manager of one of the gay bars Abdeslam visited, said he thought the suspect was a sex worker.

“We had him down as a rent boy”, he told The Sunday Times.

Two friends of Abdeslam told ABC News they had spoken to him on Skype and said he was hiding in Brussels but trying to get to Syria. They said European authorities were hunting fo him and ISIS members were watching him because they are unhappy that he had not detonated his suicide belt.

Abdeslam’s brother, Mohamed, has issued public calls for his brother to turn himself in. He told Belgian television RTBF: “We say to him that we prefer to see him in prison rather than in a graveyard.”

Another of his brothers blew himself up Paris terror spree.