A blast has been reported at a metro station close to European Union institutions in Brussels, not long after explosions tore through the departure hall of the Belgian city’s airport on Tuesday morning, killing up to 13 dead and injuring several others.
At the airport, shots were fired and there were shouts in Arabic shortly before the explosions, Belgian news agency Belga said.
Belgium is on maximum alert. Rail traffic to the airport has been suspended, flights to and from Brussels have been cancelled and the airport was evacuated.
It was not immediately known whether there are casualties in the metro station blast. All metro operations in Brussels have been suspended following blast at the Maalbeek metro station.
The blasts come just four days after the arrest in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in November’s Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people and the Belgian police had been on high alert.
Belgian media said rail traffic to the airport was suspended, flights have been cancelled and the airport was evacuated. There was no immediate official comment on the cause of the attack.
Social media showed pictures of smoke rising from the departure hall of the airport, where all windows were shattered by the blast. Passengers were seen running away down a slipway from the departure lounge.
Sky News television’s Alex Rossi, at the scene, said he heard two “very, very loud explosions”.
“I could feel the building move. There was also dust and smoke as well…I went towards where the explosion came from and there were people coming out looking very dazed and shocked.”
“The thinking here is that it is some kind of terrorist attack – that hasn’t been verified by any of the authorities here at the airport.”
Soon after the explosions, Brussels airport tweeted:
Don't come to the airport – airport is being evacuated. Avoid the airport area. Flights have been cancelled.
— Brussels Airport (@BrusselsAirport) March 22, 2016
On March 19, the prime surviving suspect for November’s Paris attacks was shot in the leg and captured during a police raid in Brussels, ending an intensive four-month manhunt.
Salah Abdeslam told investigators he planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium with fellow Islamic State militants but changed his mind.
The gun and bomb attacks in Paris at a football stadium, bars and a concert hall killed 130 people and marked the deadliest militant assault in Europe since 2004.