At least eleven people have died and several injured after two explosions rocked Brussels Airport in a suspected terror attack.
Witnesses
described seeing 'dismembered bodies everywhere' after the blasts which
are believed to have centred on the American Airlines check-in desk at
around 8am (7am GMT).
There
were reports that shouts in Arabic were heard in the building before
the two explosion and shots were fired in the aftermath.
Around
90 minutes later, there were reports of another explosion at a Metro
station near the EU headquarters in central Brussels.
Photographs
from inside the arrivals hall showed the floor was covered in fallen
roof tiles and dust as bloodied people hobbled out of the airport.
Others injured were photographed lying on the floor.
Video also shows terrified passengers running for their lives out of the terminal.
The
explosions come just a day after the Belgium Interior Minister warned
of possible revenge attacks after the arrest of Paris terror attack
suspect Salah Abdeslam in the city last week.
In the
aftermath of the explosions at the airport, thousands of people waiting
for flights this morning were penned inside the terminal as police
sealed off the shattered arrivals hall.
People
already checked-in were then slowly evacuated through emergency exits –
but were told to leave all their hand luggage as police checked bags
for more explosives.
Evacuated
air passengers are being ferried onto buses and are being driven to a
'crisis centre' away from the airport. Women and children are being
moved first.
Sky
News Middle East correspondent Alex Rossi, who was at the airport en
route for Tel Aviv, told the channel: 'I could feel the buildings
move.'
Pauline Deglume tweeted: 'My godfather is located at the airport and said he saw dismembered bodies everywhere.'
Armed police in protective clothing combed the building for more wounded travellers and suspicious bags.
All flights are being diverted from the airport this morning as it remains on lockdown.
Flights
due to land at Brussels-Zaventem, which handles 21million passengers a
year, were sent to Antwerp, Liege, and Brussels Charleroi airports.
The
Belgian Interior Minister has raised the country's security level to
'maximum' this morning as it prepares itself for more terror attacks in
the wake of the airport bombings.
The incident
came as the Belgian capital was on a state of high alert following the
arrest of Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam in the city last
week.
Belgium's
Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, said the country was on high alert for a
possible revenge attack following the capture of 26-year-old Salah
Abdeslam in a flat in Brussels on Friday.
'We know that stopping one cell can ... push others into action. We are aware of it in this case,' he told public radio.
Brussels
is on high alert following the capture last Friday of Salah Abdeslam,
the most-wanted man in Europe, in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of the
city after a four-month search.
Just
yesterday Belgium's Interior Minister Jan Jambon said the country was
braced for a possible revenge attack following the capture of
26-year-old Abdeslam.
France
is seeking Abdeslam’s extradition so he can stand trial for his alleged
role in the November 13 rampage of gunfire and suicide bombings that
killed 130 people in Paris.
Mr Jambon
said: ‘After 18 months of dealing with this terrorist issue, I have
learned that when the terrorists and weapons are in the same place, and
that's what we saw in [the suburb of] Forest, we are close to an attack.
I'm not saying it is evidence. But yes, there are indications.’
Belgium
is under great tension, with its federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw
saying yesterday that last year the country worked on 315 new
anti-terror cases and nearly 60 so far this year.
Indeed,
many witnesses at Brussels Airport today immediately jumped to the
conclusion that there had been a terrorist attack, which reflects the
nature of the country.
Sky
News reporter Alex Rossi, who is at the airport, said tension levels in
the city ‘seem to have dropped somewhat’ since the Paris attacks in
November.
He added: ‘I
don't know whether that is because the threat wasn't as great - clearly
if this is a terrorist attack, that isn't the case - or if that's
because people become… used to terror.
‘Terror
of course works by people being shocking, being surprising. And when
you become more used to that level of threat I suppose you can't remain
at such an anxious, intense level.
‘But
having said that, people were still worried. People you would talk to
would talk about the level of military on the streets, the level of
security, and these are anxious times indeed.'
(Daily Mail)
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