UW freshman Andy Van Vliet (left) is from Belgium, which was hit by a pair of terrorist attacks on Tuesday. Credit: Michael Sears

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Madison — Andy Van Vliet's phone lit up early Tuesday morning.

Text messages. Tweets. Facebook posts. Voice messages.

Everyone who reached out to the Wisconsin Badgers' freshman forward wanted to know whether his family was safe back home in Brussels, Belgium.

Van Vliet, a native of Brasschaat, a municipality of slightly more than 37,000 people and located in the province of Antwerp, hadn't seen the news yet.

He wasn't aware that more than 30 people died and more than 200 others were injured in terrorist bombings at the airport and a metro station.

"It was a shock," Van Vliet, who is ineligible to play this season, said after practice Tuesday. "I had like 1,000 messages. Then we watched the news.

"That was scary, to be honest. You never think it is going to happen in your country or to somebody close to you."

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks and Belgian law enforcement officials warned a suspect could be at large.

According to reports: at least 11 people were killed and 100 wounded at Brussels' international airport and at least 20 people died and 130 were wounded at the Maelbeek metro station.

The attacks occurred less than a week after investigators apprehended Salah Abdeslam, who was allegedly involved in the attacks on Paris in November and was hiding near Brussels.

Van Vliet's family and friends are safe. His parents are in Madison this week visiting because UW is on spring break and Van Vliet is not allowed to travel with the team for NCAA Tournament games because he is ineligible.

Still, Van Vliet spent time Tuesday surfing the Internet for pictures, videos and reports of the attacks.

"I saw pictures of a man sitting down and his leg was bleeding from flying glass," he said. "He was a basketball player and apparently he got launched like 70 feet from the explosion. He had all glass in his leg.

"I saw two videos of the explosions themselves. They are circulating on Facebook. That was scary to watch. All of a sudden you see an explosion and people being launched. It was awful."

He learned that the members of the Antwerp Giants, the amateur team for which he played last season, were at the airport en route to a European Cup game.

"They were in there 10 minutes after," he said. "A friend of mine on the team said they were told there had been an explosion. He didn't believe it because he didn't hear it at all.

"But a couple minutes later they were yelling: 'Evacuate. Evacuate. Leave the building.'

"That's kind of scary."

Van Vliet acknowledged he felt a mix of sorrow and anger.

"Of course you are angry," he said. "It is happening in your country. You want it to stop, not only for the people in your country but for the whole world. It is just terrible."

Van Vliet noted that Belgians still remember the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I was young but everybody in our country was upside down," he said. "And still every year on 9-11 there is news about it, memorials."

The Badgers practiced Tuesday in preparation for their Sweet 16 game against Notre Dame on Friday in Philadelphia. Van Vliet plans to watch the game with his parents, just as he did when the Badgers defeated Pittsburgh in the opening round and Xavier in the second round. If the Badgers get past Notre Dame, Van Vliet plans to watch UW battle either North Carolina or Indiana on Sunday for a Final Four berth. His parents are scheduled to return home that day.

For now, Van Vliet will be thinking of his fellow countrymen.

"I've talked to a lot of people back home," he said. "It was crazy."