Explosions tore through the departure hall of Brussels airport on Tuesday morning killing at least 10 people and injuring several others, Belgian news agency Belga said. A third explosion was reported at Maelbeek metro station in central Brussels, close to EU institutions. More bombs have been found at the airport.
The latest death toll was reported by Reuters quoting Belgian broadcaster RTBF which has cited hospital sources as saying up to ten were dead and 30 wounded.
The Belgian agency said shots were fired and there were shouts in Arabic shortly before the explosions.
The blasts occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in November militant attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Belgian police had been on alert for any reprisal action.
Social media showed pictures of smoke rising from the departure hall where windows had been shattered by the blasts. Passengers were seen running away down a slipway.
Sky News television’s Alex Rossi, at the scene, said he heard two “very, very loud explosions”.
“I could feel the building move. There was also dust and smoke as well…I went towards where the explosion came from and there were people coming out looking very dazed and shocked.”
“The thinking here is that it is some kind of terrorist attack – that hasn’t been verified by any of the authorities here at the airport.”
* Belgium’s Transport Authority says all Metro stations in Brussels closing * MEA Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said no Indians are among the casualties. “Have spoken to our Ambassador. No report of any Indian casualty, says MEA on explosions at Brussels airport,” Swarup said. * Belgian fire officials have told local media that several people have been
killed in the airport blast. There has been no official communication yet.
Belgian media said rail traffic to the airport was suspended. Brussels airport said it had cancelled all flights and the complex had been evacuated. Salah Abdeslam, the prime surviving suspect for November’s Paris attacks on a stadium, cafes and a concert hall, was captured by Belgian police after a shootout on Friday. Belgium’s Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, said on Monday the country was on high alert for a possible revenge attack following the capture of 26-year-old Abdeslam. “We know that stopping one cell can … push others into action. We are aware of it in this case,” he told public radio. French investigator Francois Molins told a news conference in Paris on Saturday that Abdeslam, a French citizen born and raised in Brussels, admitted to investigators he had wanted to blow himself up along with others at the Stade de France on the night of the attack claimed by Islamic State; but he later backed out. On Monday, Belgian authorities said they were focusing a new search on a man known to have traveled with key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was captured last week in Brussels. Federal prosecutors appealed to the public for information about 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui, who allegedly traveled to Hungary with Abdeslam before the Nov. 13 carnage, and has been traced to safe houses under a false name. Laachraoui was checked by guards at the Austria-Hungary border on Sept. 9 while driving in a Mercedes with Abdeslam and one other person, Belgium’s federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Laachraoui, whose nationality wasn’t disclosed, had traveled to Syria in February 2013, prosecutors said. It wasn’t clear when he returned to Europe. Using a false identity, Laachraoui also rented a house under the name of Soufiane Kayal in the Belgian town of Auvelais that was allegedly used as a safe house, where prosecutors said traces of his DNA were found. The house was searched Nov. 26. Laachraoui is “someone who must explain himself,” Belgian prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said, stressing that “clues” don’t amount to proof.
Investigators have struggled with the complexity of the Paris attacks case. “We are far from putting the puzzle together,” Van Leeuw said. He stressed that the public should come forward with information they may have. Investigators don’t yet know the “exact path” taken by Abdeslam, who had crisscrossed Europe ahead of the Paris bloodbath and then fled the scene, a Belgian federal prosecutor said Monday. Abdeslam, suspected as a logistician in the attacks that killed 130 people, was arrested Friday after a four-month manhunt in the same neighborhood in Brussels where he grew up. Van Leeuw told reporters at a news conference in Brussels that investigators hope to find out the details of Abdeslam’s actions between the Nov. 13 attacks and his arrest, “if he decides to tell us.” Abdeslam, 26, a French citizen who grew up in Brussels’ heavily immigrant Molenbeek neighborhood, slipped through police fingers on multiple occasions, including the day after the attacks. He was interviewed three times Saturday, the day after his capture — once by prosecutors and twice by an investigating judge — and “wasn’t in great shape” because he had been shot in the leg by police during his capture, Van Leeuw said. In addition to the Paris attacks investigation, Belgian anti-terrorism prosecutors have worked non-stop on hundreds of other cases — 325 cases last year and nearly 60 new cases so far this year, Van Leeuw said. His French counterpart, Francois Molins, who was also at the news conference, said his team has 244 anti-terror cases in progress concerning 772 individuals either charged or sought. “(It’s clear) we have a general threat,” Van Leeuw said. Abdeslam has a court hearing on Wednesday. France has requested his extradition but Abdeslam’s lawyer says his client will fight the request.
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