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Belgium is today in lockdown after at least 31 people were killed in suspected suicide attacks on Brussels Airport and the city’s metro system.

Many more have been injured and the number of people who have died is likely to change following the attack, believed to be the work of Isis.

Eurostar suspends all services to and from Brussels following explosions

It is believed 20 people were killed on the metro and 11 died at Zaventem Airport. This afternoon, police said they found an AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle next to the body of one of the attackers and an unexploded bomb belt.

All flights were cancelled, the metro system has been closed down and security checks on the French/Belgium border were tightened. Telephone networks have also been struggling to cope with the volume of calls. People are being advised to contact one another via social media.




The bombs in the airport are believed to have been close to the American Airlines departure desk.

People receiving treatment among the debris of the airport (Picture: AP)

People lie on the floor following the bombings at the airport (Picture: AP)

Military and police reinforcements have been called in

A private security guard helps a wounded passenger outside the Maalbeek metro station (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Summary of what we know so far There were two explosions at Brussels Zaventem Airport at around 7am UK time.

About an hour later there was an explosion on the Metro at Maelbeek station, near the city’s EU quarter.

The death toll is at least 31. 11 people are reported to have been killed at the airport and 20 in the explosion on the Metro.

The attacks are believed to have injured around 170 people.

Two of those injured are British, with at least one injured at the airport, Downing Street said.

The attack at the airport targeted an American Airlines desk and was probably carried out by a suicide bomber, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said.

Local media reported that shouts in Arabic were heard during the attack at the airport.

Two Kalashnikov rifles were found in the airport departure lounge after the attacks, a European security official said.

Police believe two men behind the airport bombing have died and are hunting a third suspect

Raids have taken place across Belgium with police finding a nail bomb, chemicals and Islamic flag in the Schaerbeek district

People on stretchers following one of the explosions (Picture: Fortitude Press)

Transport systems across Brussels have been closed down (Picture: Fortitutde Press)

The metro system was attacked at Maalbeek train station, close to EU parliament building. A police station has also been evacuated and there are reports that their have been more deaths there.

Small blasts also took place close to a central Brussels metro station that has been sealed off by police, believed to be the work of the police bomb squad.

There are reports that before the explosions there were shots fired and someone was shouting in Arabic.

Police say two of the men believed to be behind the airport attacks are dead, while they are hunting a third suspect, pictured below in a white jacket.

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Emergency workers help a woman at the site of the explosion at a metro station (Picture: AP)

The scene in central Brussels this morning after an explosion on the metro (Picture: Corbis)

Jordy van Overmeir was waiting in the baggage area after having just landed at the airport from Bangkok when the explosion took place.

He told Sky News: ‘I got my luggage and then all of a sudden I heard a loud explosion – this boom. Initially I thought it was the sound of a suitcase falling down …

Facebook activates safety check in wake of attacks on Brussels’At this point I saw all these policemen running around, shouting and saying ‘there was an explosion’.’

Outside the baggage claim area and the arrival hall he could ‘smell smoke and see glass and I saw blood’.

He said: ‘Then I came outside of the airport on the parking lot and there I saw people with head wounds, people crying, more blood on the road and glass everywhere.’

A man covered in blood walks away from the airport (Picture: AP)

Dozens of people have been killed and injured (Picture: Reuters)

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https://twitter.com/kurtsiegelin/status/712225020529999873/photo/1

Damage inside the airport

It is believed shots were fired before the explosions

Inside the departure lounge where the explosion occurred (Picture: Jef Versele)

Two wounded women at Brussels Airport following the blast (Picture: Ketevan Kardava/AP)

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He took a proper look at the airport building and said the ‘glass is out’ on the upper floors where the departure hall is.

He said: ‘There was a lot of panic, with people running around. Policemen, military everywhere. There were ambulances going around. People seemed really shocked … Everyone seems very shocked and very sad.’

People ‘shackled and chained’ just for having mental illness in IndonesiaBritish Prime Minister David Cameron wrote on Twitter that he was ‘shocked and concerned by the events in Brussels’ and would be chairing a Cobra meeting later this morning.

‘We will do everything we can to help,’ he said.

Brussels Airport issued a statement confirming that all flights have been cancelled for the rest of the day.

A man lies injured at the airport (Picture: Ketevan Kardava/AP)

Passengers are advised to contact their airline for further instructions.

Security at Gatwick Airport has been increased following the attack and Eurostar services to and from Brussels were suspended.



A witness at Maelbeek station told Belgian broadcaster RTBF: ‘We left Maelbeek station towards the centre at around 9.07am, 9.10am, when we felt an explosion which appeared to come from the front of the train.

‘The lights went off, there was panic given what happened at Brussels airport.

Raids took place across Belgium on Tuesday evening in the wake of the attacks, a Belgian federal prosecutor said.

A nail-filled bomb, chemical products and an Islamic State flag were found during a house search in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood as police hunted one of three suspected airport bombers who remained at large.

A police officer directs passengers out of the smoke-filled terminal (Picture: AP)

There were scenes of panic inside the airport after the bombs went off (Picture: AP)

Travellers fell to the floor after the bombs were detonated (Picture: AP)

Belgium is now on its highest possible terror level (Picture: AP)

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the Met Police’s lead for Counter Terrorism Policing, said: ‘Our thoughts are with the people of Brussels following this morning’s horrific attacks.

‘As a precaution forces across the UK have increased policing presence at key locations, including transport hubs, to protect the public and provide reassurance. This is not in relation to any specific information or intelligence.

‘In London specifically, the Metropolitan Police Service has mobilised additional officers, who will carry out highly visible patrols at key locations around the Capital including the transport network.The number of officers deployed will be regularly assessed.These additional officers are deployed as part of reassurance measures.

‘The police presence across London and the rest of the UK is constantly under review

‘We are in close liaison with the Belgium authorities and will continue to monitor the situation.

‘The threat to the UK from international terrorism remains at severe as it has been since August 2014, meaning an attack is highly likely.’

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video of smoke at Brussels airport after suicide attacks, via @OnlineMagazinpic.twitter.com/tgzHCfO6HD — Khalid Khan™ (@khalidkhan787) March 22, 2016

Home Secretary Theresa May said security checks are being intensified at the UK’s borders in the wake of the attacks.


She told MPs: ‘Border Force is carrying out more intensive checks at the UK border including greater searching of vehicles, the use of search dogs and greater numbers of Border Force officers on duty.’

Jef Versele, 40, from Ghent, told the Press Association: ‘I was on my way to check in and two bombs went off – two explosions.

‘I didn’t see anything. Everything was coming down. Glassware. It was chaos. It was unbelievable. It was the worst thing.’

He added: ‘People were running away. There were lots of people on the ground. A lot of people are injured.’

Mr Versele was two or three storeys above the source of the explosion but he said many people around him were hurt.

‘The bomb was coming from downstairs. It was going up through the roof. It was big.

‘About 15 windows were just blown out from the entrance hall,’ he added.

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? #zaventem Le bilan serait de 10 morts et 30 blessés selon sources hospitalières citées par RTBF pic.twitter.com/xiImZSFNJI — B3zero (@B3zero) March 22, 2016

Some reports suggest that firefighters have discovered up to three more explosive devices at the airport, also known as Zaventem Airport.

On the Metro, traveller Evan Lamos tweeted a picture of passengers climbing from his train into the tunnel, saying: ‘We are being evacuated from the back of the Metro, between Schuman and Maelbeek.

‘Smoke in the tunnel as we evacuate.’

Images on social media showed the injured being treated in the street.

Maelbeek station is around 500 metres from the buildings of the European Parliament.

As well as the airport, the whole Metro system was closed after the attacks.

The explosions are believed to have happened near an American Airlines departure desk (Picture: Jef Versele)

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Flights and train services to and from the airport have been suspended.


Sky News Middle East correspondent Alex Rossi, who was at the airport en route for Tel Aviv, told the channel: ‘I could feel the buildings move.’

Mr Rossi told Sky News people were ‘dazed and shocked’.

‘The word is definitely two explosions.

‘The thinking here by everybody is that it is some kind of terrorist attack although that hasn’t been verified by anyone here at the airport.

Un homme brûlé à maelbeek "j'ai couru pour sauver ma peau" pic.twitter.com/S3zo6lb5X9 — patrice leprince (@patriceleprince) March 22, 2016

Windows at the front of the airport were blown out in the blasts (Picture: Jef Versele)

‘No word too of casualties. Don’t know how the explosion took place, the method if you like. But it certainly seems Brussels airport has been targeted in a terrorist attack.

‘We are all being moved out of the airport now towards the emergency exit. There is a great deal of confusion here. Certainly there are a number of very upset, as you might imagine, very frightened people.’

He added: ‘There are fears that there might be other attackers.’

The incident came as the Belgian capital was on a state of high alert following the arrest of Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam in the city last week.

Many people have been killed and injured in the explosions (Picture: Jef Versele)

https://twitter.com/AmichaiStein1/status/712176282579169280/photo/1

Evacuation at Zaventem pic.twitter.com/6JbQ4zYiF7 — Al Verney (@AlVerney) March 22, 2016

Enorme knal in treinstation @BrusselsAirport. Geen idee voorlopig wat er gaande is. pic.twitter.com/4P5e8SIDDH — Tine Hollevoet (@tine_10e) March 22, 2016

Bomb explosion at Brussel airport. Apparent terrorist activity. Airport is on lockdown and being evacuated. pic.twitter.com/nPRbdzFQdO — Taa Wongbe (@twongbe) March 22, 2016