Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Explosion at Brussels central station as military kill a 'suspect wearing an explosive belt' and shouting 'Allahu Akbar'

(Daily Mail) There has been an explosion at Brussels central station, where military have shot a suspect who was allegedly wearing an explosive belt.

The suspect was allegedly carrying a backpack and a belt of explosives and was 'seriously injured' after being 'neutralized' by the military. There are no other casualties.

The Belgian capital's Grand Place, a major tourist site, was evacuated along with the station about 650 feet away.

Belgian Rail says traffic has been halted at the station with local media reporting that there was a small blast there.

Belgian Police have said an incident with a person in Brussels central station is under control.

Soldiers, firefighters, armoured trucks and police were pictured outside the station after it was evacuated.

Federal police have confirmed the blasts and say soldiers opened fire on man.

One witness said he was 'lucky to be alive' after something that sounded like a 'bomb' allegedly went off just 30 metres away from him.

Ludoivic Hampton wrote: 'When you're walking through central station and something that looked and sounded like a bomb goes off 30 metres away from you.

'I'm lucky to be alive.'

Broadcaster RTL quoted Fires Services spokesman Pierre Meys confirming that some kind of an explosion had happened in the city's Central station on Tuesday. Meys could not say what had caused the blast.

He could only confirm that firefighters were at the scene.

A police spokesman said: 'There was an accident at Central Station. There was an explosion around a person. That person was neutralised by the soldiers that were on the scene.

'At the moment, the police are in numbers at the station and everything is under control.'

Brussels has been on the highest state of alert for more than a year after a series of devastating attacks on its transport system in March 2016.

Three coordinated suicide bombings took place at the city’s airport and at the Maalbeek Metro station, with a total of 32 people killed, and 300 people being injured.

Three terrorists linked to Islamic State died in the bloodbath, and all were linked to those who carried out another devastating attack on Paris in November 2015.
Ramadan death toll stands at 3,755.