Police in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Italy raided European Commission headquarters, banks, company offices and homes yesterday in a probe into alleged corruption, Belgian prosecutors said.

More than 150 police took part in over 30 searches, impounding documents and questioning several people on orders from a Belgian investigating magistrate, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said.

"The investigation involves suspected bribery of European civil servants, forming a criminal organisation, violating professional secrecy, breaches of public tender laws and forgery," he said in a statement.

The three-year-old probe looked into the circumstances of tenders for European Commission representation offices abroad and contracts for installing security systems for the offices, the statement said.

"European Commission civil servants as well as the directors of companies which won tenders are suspected of being implicated in fraud," it added.

Among the sites searched was the office of a parliamentary assistant at the European Parliament, the statement said.

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