Salah Abdeslam, a suspected active participant in the Paris attacks in November, has been arrested from his hideout in Brussels.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and French President Francois Hollande jointly announced the capture of Europe's most wanted criminal on Friday.
"This is an important result in the battle for democracy," Michel said.
Hollande said he hopes Abdeslam will be extradited to France "as rapidly as possible".
Earlier, a Belgian official tweeted 'We got him", announcing the capture of the militant responsible for attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
"We must catch all those who allowed, organised or facilitated these attacks and we realise that they are a lot more numerous than we thought earlier and had identified," Hollane said.
Abdeslam was slightly wounded in the shootout at his hideout in his hometown of Molenbeek and was being held overnight in a hospital.
Another person in the Belgium police' wanted list, Monir Ahmed Alaaj, was also arrested in the dramatic raid.
Three members of a family accused of helping them hide have also been arrested, Belgian police said.
The suspects were hiding in a terraced town house, a mile from Brussels city centre, BBC reported.
The November attack n Paris was planned by radical French and Belgian nationals, French authorities believe.
France had even criticised Belgium for its lax monitoring of the activities of the fighters who returned from Syria after stints with the Islamic State.
On Tuesday, Belgian police killed a gunman holed up inside a building in the southern suburb of Brussels in connection with investigations into the Paris terror attack.
An Algerian national linked to the Paris attacks, identified as Mohamed Belkaid, was killed in the raid in the Forest neighborhood.
Police say the fingerprints of Abdeslam were also found in the Forest flat.
