Thirty-four people were killed in attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital yesterday, according to public broadcaster VRT, triggering security alerts across Europe and bringing some cross-border traffic to a halt.
A witness said he heard shouts in Arabic and shots shortly before two blasts struck a packed airport departure lounge at Brussels airport. The federal prosecutor said one of the explosions was probably triggered by a suicide bomber.
The blasts occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in the terror attacks in Paris in November last year that killed 130 people. Belgian police and combat troops on the streets had been on alert for reprisals, but the attacks took place in crowded areas where people and bags are not searched.
Photo: AP
All public transport in Brussels was shut down, as it was in London during 2005 terror attacks there that killed 52. Authorities appealed to citizens not to use overloaded telephone networks, extra troops were sent into the city and the Belgian Crisis Centre, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the public: “Stay where you are.”
Alex Rossi of Britain’s Sky News, at the airport, 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,” Rossi said.
Reuters/RTL Belgium via Reuters
VRT said police had found a Kalashnikov assault rifle next to the body of an attacker at the airport. Such weapons have become a trademark of Islamic State group-inspired attacks in Europe, notably in Belgium and France.
An unused explosive belt was also found in the area, the public broadcaster said.
Police were continuing to scour the airport for any further bombs or attackers.
Photo: AP
Alphonse Youla, 40, who works at the airport, said he heard a man shouting out in Arabic before the first explosion.
“Then the glass ceiling of the airport collapsed,” Youla said.
“I helped carry out five people dead, their legs destroyed,” he said, his hands covered in blood.
A witness said the blasts occurred at a check-in desk.
Video showed devastation in the hall, with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor. Some passengers emerged from the terminal with blood spattered over their clothes. Smoke rose from the building through shattered windows and passengers fled down a slipway, some still hauling their bags.
Public broadcaster RTBF said police were searching houses in the Brussels area.
VRT said 20 were killed in the metro train and 14 at the airport. Authorities had earlier put the toll at 11 in the airport bombing and 15 in the underground train.
Many of the dead and wounded at the airport were badly injured in the legs, one airport worker said, suggesting at least one bomb in a bag on the floor.
Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, all wary of spillover from the conflict in Syria, were among states announcing extra security measures.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel spoke of “a black time for our country.”
“What we feared has come to pass. Our country has been struck by attacks which are blind, violent and cowardly,” he said.
The blast hit the train as it left Maelbeek Station, close to EU institutions, heading to the city center.
VRT carried a photograph of a metro carriage at a platform with doors and windows completely blown out, its structure deformed, and its interior mangled and charred.
A local journalist tweeted a photograph of a person lying covered in blood among smoke outside Maelbeek Station, on the main Rue de la Loi, which connects central Brussels with the EU institutions. Ambulances were ferrying the wounded away and sirens rang out across the area.
“We are at war and we have been subjected to acts of war in Europe for the last few months,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.
Public broadcaster VTM said the Tihange nuclear power plant had been evacuated as part of the security clampdown.
Brussels airport said it had canceled all flights until at least 6am today, and the complex had been evacuated and trains to the airport had been stopped. Passengers were taken to coaches from the terminal that would remove them to a secure area.
All three main long-distance rail stations in Brussels were closed and train services on the cross-channel tunnel from London to Brussels were suspended.
Security services have been on a high state of alert across western Europe for fear of militant attacks backed by the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the Paris terror attacks.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS