Three deadly terrorist blasts rocked the Belgian capital Tuesday, leaving at least 30 dead at the Brussels airport and a metro station and striking fear in the heart of the European Union just days after a manhunt captured a key suspect in last year’s Paris massacres, reports The Washington Post..
The apparently coordinated explosions — including at least one by a suicide bomber at the airport — created a renewed sense of threat that spilled far beyond Brussels as authorities boosted police patrols in cities such as Paris, London and Washington.
The latest bloodshed also made clear that European capitals still remain perilously vulnerable despite attempts to dismantle the militant network that perpetrated the worst terror attack in Paris in generations last November — and raising fears of reprisal attacks for the arrest of the fugitive suspect last week.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but European leaders wasted no time in referencing other attacks by Islamist militants. “We are at war,” said French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
More than a dozen people were killed and several others injured after explosions at an airport and metro station in Brussels.
“We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war,” he added. Hours early, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the city had come under “terrorist attacks.” His office said at least one of the airport blast was carried out by a suicide bomber.
Belgian leaders warned that the Brussels perpetrators may still be at large, and Brussels was largely shut down.
Feeding fears that the danger had not subsided, Belgian media reported that security forces were conducting raids around the capital, but then said that law enforcement agencies had asked them to stop reporting on them to avoid tipping off suspects.
The attack started just before 8 a.m. Brussels time, when one blast ripped through the departures hall of the Brussels Airport, followed shortly by another one near the other end of the terminal, where people had already started to run for cover.
The blasts collapsed ceilings in the departure hall, sent passengers fleeing, and left pools of blood amid splintered signs and abandoned luggage.
PHOTO: Scene from one of the blasts, courtesy New York Times
