At about 8am this morning, the first bomb went off at the airport as passengers queued to check in. Shots were heard before the explosions, which appear to have gone off near the American Airlines and Brussels Airline check-in desks.
Later there was also a blast at Maalbeek station, very close to the city’s main European Union (EU) buildings, leading the Belgian government to raise the terror alert level to Four, its highest level, across the country. Belgian police said that the blast at a metro station near the EU institutions, caused deaths and injuries, without offering further details.
A Belgian police spokesman said: “There are wounded and there are dead. I don’t know how many.”
One Belgian prosecutor confirmed the explosion at the Maalbeek Metro Station, adding that at least 21 people have been reported dead in the airport and metro blasts. It is believed that a suicide bomber struck at the Brussels airport, with shots fired and words shouted in Arabic before two blasts were heard near the check-in desk.
Passengers were seen fleeing for their lives shortly after 8am local time and the airport is currently on lockdown with all flights cancelled and rail traffic towards the airport suspended. An hour later, an explosion was heard at a city centre metro station in what appears to be a separate terror attack.
British prime minister, David Cameron will hold a meeting of the government’s emergency committee later in the day. Today's two attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam was arrested in the Belgian capital in relation to November’s terror attacks on Paris.
Comments
Post a Comment