Brussels metro closed and people warned to avoid public areas after serious and imminent threat
Brussels has been put into security lockdown after Belgian intelligence received ‘precise information’ of a planned Paris-style ISIS attack in the capital.
Belgium’s prime minister Charles Michel confirmed that the decision to raise the terror alert level in Brussels was taken ‘based on quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris.’
Service has been halted on the Brussels subway system and heavily armed police and soldiers are patrolling the Belgian capital amid a high security alert.
The country’s national security center has raised the terror threat level to Level four after fears of a ‘serious and imminent’ terror threat involving ‘weapons and explosives’.
Speaking at a news conference, the Belgium Prime Minister said the fear was that ‘several individuals with arms and explosives could launch an attack … perhaps even in several places’.
‘We urge the public not to give in to panic, to stay calm. We have taken the measures that are necessary,’ Mr Michel added.
People in Brussels have been told to avoid public gatherings, including concerts, train stations and airports.
Belgium’s interior minister Jan Jambon said the country’s situation is ‘serious’ but under control with the nation at its highest state of alert.
Jan Jambon told reporters as he arrived for a special security Cabinet meeting Saturday that ‘the situation is serious. Otherwise we would not go to Level 4, but the situation is under control.’
The terror alert comes as authorities across Europe try to determine how a network of primarily French and Belgian attackers carried out the deadly attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead.
Brussels was home to the suspected organizer of the November 13 Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in a dramatic police shootout on Wednesday.
Security officers continue to hunt for the suspected eight gunman, Saleh Abdeslam, 26, whose brother Brahim, carried out the suicide bomb attack at Le Comptoir Voltaire, killing only himself.
A wanted poster has been published online by French and Belgium police, shortly after it emerged that security officers near the French-Belgian border, stopped Saleh Abdeslam but allowed him to leave.
Belgium has filed charges of ‘participation in terrorist attacks and participation in the activities of a terrorist organization’ against three suspects relating to the Paris attacks.
Heavily armed police and soldiers have been seen this morning patrolling key intersections of the Belgian capital.
Security forces remain concerned that further terror violence could be imminent in Brussels, where Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Saleh Abdeslam both spent time in the Belgian capital’s Molenbeek neighborhood.
Both men grew up in the hardscrabble Molenbeek district, and their family homes stand within a short walk of its main police station.
Following the devastating attacks in Paris, David Cameron will visit the French capital on Monday to meet for talks with French president Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace.
The council backed a French-sponsored resolution designed ‘to combat by all means this unprecedented threat’, saying IS ‘constitutes a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security’.
It was hailed as an ‘important moment’ by Mr Cameron as he seeks backing for UK air strikes in Syria.
Mr Cameron said the vote ‘shows beyond doubt the breadth of international support for doing more in Syria and for decisive action to eradicate’ IS, which he described as ‘this evil death cult’.
A Number 10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister will travel to Paris on Monday morning for talks with President Hollande at the Elysee. They are expected to focus on counter-terrorism co-operation and the fight against Isil in Syria and Iraq.’
Cameron’s visit comes as Turkish police arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan origin on suspicion he scouted out the target sites for the Paris attacks.
A Turkish government official the confirmed that two other men were also arrested, without giving details.
Source: Daily Mail
