The organization Islamic State claimed the attacks that have bloodied Brussels Tuesday morning, where coordinated explosions at the international airport and a subway train were thirty dead more than 200 injured and paralyzed the capital of Europe.
a picture of the alleged suspects of the attacks of Brussels-Zaventem airport, captured by a video surveillance camera, was broadcast by the Belgian authorities: it shows three men pushing trolleys.
The Belgian federal police have appealed for witnesses to identify one of them, wearing a light jacket and a shirt, and sunglasses under a black hat.
“A secret cell of the Caliphate troops (…) darted toward the cross Belgium,” according to a press advocacy organization Islamic state accusing that country of n ‘ having “stopped fighting Islam and Muslims.”
the leaders of 28 EU countries and the European institutions have denounced them in a rare joint statement, an attack against “our open society and democratic. ”
The Belgian capital, often considered a sanctuary for Islamist radicals, had so far been spared the jihadist attacks magnitude that struck Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 and Paris twice in 2015.
These new attacks come as the EI group is losing ground in Iraq and Syria, while developing in Libya
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the first two explosions occurred around 8:00 (0700 GMT) at the airport, making 14 dead and 96 wounded at the airport, according to firefighters. One of them was “probably” caused by a “suicide bomber,” said the Belgian federal prosecutor, Frédéric Van Leeuw.
According to the governor of the province of Flemish Brabant, Lodewijk De Witte, “three bombs had been introduced” in the airport, but one of them “did not explode.”
a bomb attack an hour later inside a train to the Maelbeek metro station, in the European quarter, then brought “probably about twenty deaths” and 106 wounded, according to the mayor Yvan Mayeur Brussels.
firefighters them evoked a “half dead” and 72 wounded at Maelbeek.
These attacks have triggered an increase in the terrorism alert level 4, its maximum level, a closure until at least Wednesday from Brussels Zaventem International Airport and a strengthening of security in airports in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Geneva and Copenhagen.
All the transport were suspended for several hours in the Belgian capital, seat of the European Union and NATO. The population was called to avoid travel, even if the situation was gradually returning to normal by late afternoon.
The attacks took place four days after the dramatic capture in the Brussels commune of Molenbeek French Salah Abdeslam, the sole survivor of the commando author of the attacks claimed by the EI of November in Paris (130 dead), and now in a maximum security prison in Bruges before his transfer requested by France.
” we feared an attack and it happened, “responded the Prime Minister Charles Michel after the attacks” blind, violent and cowardly “by evoking” a dark moment for this country. “
the Belgian government declared a national three-day mourning
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on Tuesday morning, shots were first heard in the departure hall of the international airport, near check-in counters, before a person starts shouting in Arabic and that two explosions ring out, several witnesses reported AFP and the news agency Belga.
“One gentleman shouted in Arabic. He shouted a few words and I heard a big explosion, “testified Alphonse Lyoura, an employee of the security of baggage.
It was” widespread panic “and” a lot of people lost legs “, told AFP a man who was five meters from the explosion that caused plumes of smoke over the terminal.
Cheryl Miller, passing from New York, told AFP she was in a queue when “there was a huge explosion and a lot of shaking. Dust fell from the vents. We all ran to protect us. “
Less than an hour after the airport, the metro was targeted, explosion blowing a train stopped 300 meters from the European Commission.
a photo released by the RTBF public television showed a subway train ripped, torn seats, walls and charred at the station struck in rush hour.
“I heard people screaming + Get out, get out +, people were running, “he told a survivor, a businessman who wanted to remain anonymous.” outside, I saw people sitting, some of which had blood on his face … smoke coming out of the subway. “
the blast was such that it caused the collapse of three walls of an underground car park adjacent to the subway station, described the spokesperson Brussels firefighters.
“There are a lot of nationalities” among the wounded, said the mayor, adding that the identification of victims would “take time” because of the situation “chaotic “
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the security of Belgian nuclear power plants has been strengthened and evacuated non-essential personnel.
The Belgian court asked the press not to communicate about the ongoing investigation, while state media were raids in the capital and Brussels feared that there “is still people in nature “.
a meeting of the National security Council chaired by the Prime Minister was going to 17H30 GMT.
These new attacks have created shockwaves throughout Europe and caused emergency meetings of the governments in Paris and London.
Security was quickly reinforced in London-Gatwick, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Geneva, Frankfurt and Copenhagen.
in France, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced an additional deployment of 1,600 police and gendarmes. Security was reinforced around the European institutions in Strasbourg (east) which houses the European Parliament and the UK, police strengthened its presence “in sensitive locations.”
“This is throughout? Europe is hit, “said French President Francois Hollande, while from Havana, US President Barack Obama called on the world to” unite “against those who” threaten the security “of peoples worldwide.
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