Police in Belgium held a man at gunpoint after he was acting

A massive security alert in Brussels turned out to be a false alarm after it emerged the man police suspected of being a suicide bomber was actually a student measuring radiation.

The Belgian capital was on lock-down this afternoon while p olice cornered the man at gunpoint after he was reportedly spotted wearing a heavy winter coat with wires protruding from it.

A huge operation was launched near Place de la Monnaie in the centre of the city after the man was seen acting suspiciously.

After the mix-up, the man was arrested and could be faced with the policing costs.

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A man is held at gunpoint in Brussels after reportedly being spotted wearing a long winter coat with wires protruding from it

A massive security operation was launched near Place de la Monnaie in the centre of the city after the man was seen acting suspiciously

He drew the attention of a security guard for wearing the winter coat which was said to have had cables hanging from it with the temperature hitting 32C in Brussels.

A spokesman for the city's police force Christian de Coninck told Levif the man was actually studying the waves and radiation in the city.

He added: 'As the person was very passive and very suspect during the operation, the police zone decided to bring civil actions to recover the costs incurred in the operation.'

The individual was arrested by special units and taken to the police for interviewing.

Pictures from the scene had shown two armed police officers pointing their guns at the man while he placed his hands on his head.

A bomb disposal robot was also understood to have moved in close to the scene.

A Brussels police spokeswoman confirmed at the time that the situation was under control but that the man had not yet being arrested.

The man had not made any threats and is speaking to officers.

Christian De Coninck of Brussels Police told local TV: 'We got a call about someone acting suspiciously. Someone with a heavy winter coat - in these temperatures it's very suspicious.

'And there were wires coming out of the coat too.

Shops nearby have been evacuated and several streets are closed as a security cordon has been set up

Shops nearby have been evacuated and several streets are closed while police detained the man

'We didn't take any risks. The person was stopped and kept at a distance. We are now waiting for more information from the bomb disposal unit which is at the scene now and then we'll know more.'

Shops nearby were evacuated and several streets were closed as a security cordon was set up.

Brussels is already on high alert and the streets of the city are packed as Belgium prepares to celebrate its national day tomorrow.

The incident comes just months after an attack at Brussels airport and on the city's metro in which 32 people were killed and dozens more injured.

The attacks caused shockwaves in a Belgium already on edge after it emerged that many of the ISIS jihadis involved in the November Paris onslaught which killed 130 people had grown up together in Brussels.