Hundreds of flights, trains cancelled all over Europe.
Hundreds of flights, trains cancelled all over Europe.
A series of explosions claimed by the Islamic State group ripped through Brussels airport and a metro train Tuesday, killing at least 35 people in the latest attacks to bring bloody carnage to the heart of Europe.
Two huge blasts, at least one of which prosecutors said was likely caused by a suicide bomber, rocked the check-in hall at Zaventem Airport, strewing the scene with blood and mangled bodies and sending hundreds of terrified travellers fleeing in terror. The fact that extremists were able to hit high-profile targets in Brussels, Europe’s symbolic capital, just months after Islamic State militants killed 130 people in Paris, will raise fresh questions about the continent’s ability to cope with terrorism.
In New Delhi, the Indian government announced there were no Indians among those killed, according to information from the Indian embassy in Belgium, but there were two Indian employees of Jet Airways among those injured.
More than 200 people were injured in Tuesday’s mayhem, that came four days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam, prime suspect in the Paris attacks, after four months on the run. The Belgian authorities had been on alert after Abdeslam, Europe’s most wanted man, told investigators he had been planning an attack on Brussels.
An online news agency affiliated with IS said the group was behind the attacks. “Islamic State fighters carried out a series of bombings with explosive belts and devices on Tuesday, targeting an airport and a central metro station in the centre of the Belgian capital Brussels, a country participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State,” the Aamaq news agency said.
Hundreds of flights and trains were cancelled as security across Europe was tightened after the bombings, which Belgian PM Charles Michel branded “blind, violent and cowardly”. He said: “This is a day of tragedy, a black day.” His spokesman announced three days of national mourning.
Shortly after the airport blasts hit at around 8 am local time (12.30 pm IST), a third explosion rocked Maalbeek metro station, in the heart of the city’s EU quarter, as rush-hour commuters were making their way to work.
There are fears that more suspects could still be at large in Brussels, home to the headquarters of both Nato and the EU, Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders warned. The Belgian authorities published surveillance camera images showing three male suspects pushing trollies with suitcases past the check-in area. Two have dark hair and one is wearing a hat.
Pierre Meys, spokesman for the Brussels fire brigade, told AFP at least 14 people had been killed at the airport, and Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said “around 20” died in the underground blast.
Witnesses described horrific scenes at the airport, with victims lying in pools of blood, their limbs blown off. There were chaotic scenes as passengers fled in panic, and plumes of dark smoke could be seen rising from holes punched through the roof of the building by the blasts.
“A man shouted a few words in Arabic and then I heard a huge blast,” airport baggage security officer Alphonse Lyoura said, his hands bloodied. “A lot of people lost limbs. One man had lost both legs and there was a policeman with a totally mangled leg.”
An Army team later blew up a suspect package at the shuttered airport, with the media reporting that the police had found an unexploded suicide vest. The authorities later said a third bomb had failed to explode at the airport. At Maalbeek station, paramedics tended to commuters with bloodied faces as the city’s normally peaceful streets filled with the wailing of sirens.
Airports across Europe swiftly announced they were boosting security, while across the Atlantic, New York and Washington ordered security personnel to crowded areas and train stations.
Leaders across Europe reacted with outrage to the attack on the EU’s capital, urging closer counter-terror efforts on a continent that has been on high alert for months. “The whole of Europe has been hit,” said French President Francois Hollande, whose country is still reeling from the November attacks in Paris.
British PM David Cameron warned of the “very real” terrorist threat faced by countries across Europe, and he declared: “We will never left these terrorists win.” US President Barack Obama said Washington stood with Belgium in the face of the “outrageous” attacks. “We will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally
Belgium in bringing to justice those who are responsible, and this is yet another reminder that the world must unite,” Mr Obama said. Belgium’s interior minister Jan Jambon announced the country’s terror threat had been raised to its highest level.
Messages of solidarity poured out on the social media, with thousands of people sharing images of beloved Belgian cartoon character Tintin in tears.
It has been a week of drama and bloodshed in Brussels. Last Tuesday saw a shootout in the city’s south that saw a Kalashnikov-wielding man killed and four police officers wounded. Investigators claim key Paris suspect Abdeslam slipped out of the apartment as the gunbattle broke out. He was arrested three days later in Brussels’ gritty Molenbeek district, just around the corner from his family home.
