Belgian prime minister says unprecedented security measures will remain in place as threat of major terrorist attack remains high

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old



Brussels will keep unprecedented security measures in place for at least another week as it faces an imminent and serious threat of a major terrorist attack, Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, has said.

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Anxious inhabitants of the Belgian capital had hoped for a respite from the lockdown that has seen shops, schools and offices shut, public transport restricted, museums and theatres closed, seasonal markets cancelled, and thousands of armed police and soldiers in the streets.

Some measures – such as the closure of schools and the metro – may be lifted on Wednesday, Michel told a press conference on Monday evening. Others will remain, however, and the military deployment will be reinforced.

Belgian security services continue to hunt for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old from Brussels who is suspected of having fled to his home city after playing a role in the attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris 10 days ago.

There are fears of a terrorist network planning a series of simultaneous strikes in different locations in Brussels.



Police in neighbouring France said on Monday evening that they had found a device resembling a suicide belt on a street in the town of Montrouge, south of Paris. Forensic experts are working to establish its composition and whether it was linked to the attacks in the French capital. A source close to the investigation told Reuters: “It looks like a belt of explosivies.”

In Brussels, Michel said the threat level in the city and the immediate surrounding region had not changed since Saturday morning, when the security measures were first imposed.



“We are very alert. The potential targets remain commercial centres and streets and public transport. But we are doing everything we can to return the situation to normal,” Michel told reporters.

“No one is happy with the situation. We are working hard to protect our citizens. There are ongoing police operations and we will be taking decisions hour by hour on the best and most appropriate measures to take.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Belgian police officers patrol the Grand Place in Brussels. The city’s historic centre remains almost deserted. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Though the news that schools would reopen and the metro in Brussels would “progressively” start to run later in the week will come as a relief to many locals, anxiety remains widespread.

In an official directive, schools have been told to create “safe rooms” where teachers and children can shelter if there is a terrorist attack. Joëlle Milquet, the minister of education, told reporters the advice was “preventative”.

Nearly 300,000 children missed school on Monday, while the historic centre of Brussels remained almost deserted apart from tourists. Hotels reported mass cancellations. Most cafes and restaurants remained shut. Armoured vehicles guarded stations and public spaces. Hospitals cancelled all but emergency treatment.



A series of raids across Belgium on Sunday night appeared to have been at best inconclusive. Seventeen of the 21 people arrested in that operation and further raids this morning have been released without charge.

One man has been charged with involvement in the preparation of a terrorist act. Three others were charged with similar offences last week.

No weapons or explosives were found during the recent raids, and the failure to capture Abdeslam will further undermine wavering international confidence in the competence of Belgium’s counter-terrorism agencies.

At least three of the nine men suspected of carrying out the Paris attacks were based in Brussels.

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Two men were held by Belgian authorities last week on suspicion of picking up Abdeslam in Paris and driving him back to Belgium after the attacks.

But Belgian officials have rejected widespread criticism of its intelligence services and police.

Michel praised the country’s counter-terrorist services as well as the “understanding and calm of the Belgian population”. In remarks likely to anger many in France, he also alleged that areas of greater Paris were no-go zones for police.

The French president, François Hollande, and the British prime minister, David Cameron, visited the Bataclan concert venue, which saw the worst carnage of the Paris attacks, on Monday morning.

Cameron said he had offered France the use of an RAF airbase in Cyprus for airstrikes on Islamic State (Isis) in Syria, and assistance with refuelling French jets. The prime minister also said he would ask for parliamentary approval for the UK to join airstrikes in Syria.

Hollande, who is heading to Washington and Moscow later this week, is pressing for a stronger international coalition against Isis.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A photo taken from David Cameron’s official Twitter feed shows him visiting the Bataclan theatre alongside François Hollande. Photograph: @David_Cameron/AP



Italian investigators have offered their French counterparts new information about Abdeslam’s whereabouts last summer, when he appears to have travelled through Italy.

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Investigators combing through mobile phone and credit card records believe Abdeslam and a suspected accomplice, Ahmed Dahmani, 26, rented a car in Belgium last July and drove to Bari together, according to a report in Corriere della Sera.

Dahmani, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, was arrested in Turkey last week on suspicion that he allegedly helped examine the locations in Paris attacked earlier this month.

Abdeslam is a French citizen and could therefore travel freely between countries in the European Union’s Schengen area, where there are no border controls.



Since the attacks, some countries have imposed temporary controls and there have been calls for the borderless system to be scrapped.

Investigators in Italy believe the pair took a ferry to Patras, western Greece, on 1 August. It is not clear what they did then, because there are no traces of their movements for the next four days, but one hypothesis suggests the two may have travelled on to Turkey, and perhaps even Syria, and may have met with the alleged mastermind behind the attack, Abaaoud Abdelhamid, according to the report.

Abdeslam and Dahmani were back in Bari on 5 August, investigators have found, and then made their way through Padova, before heading back to Belgium.

Separately, Corriere della Sera noted that it was believed that Dahmani left Paris and headed to Belgium after the attacks, and from there travelled to the Netherlands. It is believed he took a flight from Amsterdam to Turkey on 18 November.

Abdeslam’s brother, Brahim, blew himself up in the Paris attacks. Another brother, Mohamed, has appeared on Belgian TV to appeal for his sibling to surrender. “I’d rather see him in prison than a cemetery,” he said.

More foreign fighters in Syria come from Belgium than any other EU country in per capita terms.