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Financial companies in Brussels instructed employees to work from home as fears of a terror attack brought business in the Belgian capital to a standstill.

Belgium’s financial industry employs about 50,000, mainly in Brussels, where shops, schools and subways were closed Monday on the third day of an unprecedented lock-down.

“It’s not entirely business as usual,” Pascal Brabant, a spokesman for Euronext Brussels, said by phone from the office. “There’s absolutely no impact on the stock exchange activities, but we decided to facilitate working from home.”

Belgium’s benchmark stock index, the Bel20 Index, declined 0.2 percent to 3,695.24 at 4:07 p.m. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was down 0.4 percent to 380.13. The volume was lower at 93 percent of the three-month average.

Only about half of Euronext’s 25 employees were operating from its offices in central Brussels on Monday. Insurer Ageas SA, housed in the same building as Euronext, also allowed staff to work from home, while Belgian bank KBC Groep NV closed its headquarters and told employees to work from home or a local office.

“I hope we’ll be back in office tomorrow,” said Piet Lammens, global head of market research at KBC. “We’ll evaluate the situation later today. I’m not afraid.”

The city was placed on the highest level of alert for a terror attack Saturday, as security forces sealed off streets and searched for suspects. Police have arrested more than 20 people. A Belgium-born man suspected in attacks that killed 130 in Paris on Nov. 13, was not among those arrested.

BNP Paribas Fortis SA told employees in a memo that “a very limited number of employees will ensure the most critical tasks in Brussels.”

“No real chaos,” said Dirk Thiels, head of investment management at KBC Asset Management. “Just a very quiet Brussels as the police is still looking for a terrorist on the loose.”

— With assistance by John Martens, and Sofia Horta e Costa