Three Dutch and at least two US citizens were killed in the Brussels airport bombing, it has been confirmed.

Bert Koenders, the Dutch foreign minister, said on Friday the three Dutch victims were a woman from Deventer, in the east of the Netherlands, and a brother and sister from Limburg province in the south, who were living in the US.



The brother and sister were named on behalf of their family as Alex and Sascha Pinczowski, while the third victim was named locally as Elita Weah. All three were waiting to fly to the US.

Arriving in Brussels on Friday, US secretary of state John Kerry separately confirmed two US citizens – at present unnamed – had been confirmed dead and their families informed.

A Briton, David Dixon, and a Chinese national only identified by his surname Deng, were also confirmed dead on Friday and the French foreign ministry also announced that one French person had been killed. Twelve French people had been wounded, three of them seriously, it said.

The Dutch and Americans were among 31 people killed in the coordinated terror attacks that struck the Belgian capital on Tuesday.

Jim Cain, a former US ambassador to Denmark, on Friday confirmed Alex’s death on behalf of the Pinczowski family, saying that the family were “grateful to have closure on this tragic situation”.



“The family is in the process of making arrangements. We ask for continued prayers and privacy during this time of grieving as we await final closure,” Cain said.

Cain, whose daughter Cameron was engaged to Alex, described Alex as a “brilliant young man”. The Cain family is understood to have travelled to Brussels to help with the search.

Alex Pinczowski had been on the phone with his mother to say they had safely reached the airport when the explosion rocked the departure hall, Cain told ABC11.

“[Alex’s mother] Mariaan said the phone sounded like it went underwater, so that’s the last contact anyone had with Alex or Sascha,” Cain said. Relatives had told Dutch media that the blast and the sound of glass shattering could be heard before the line went dead.

The Pinczowski siblings, both in their 20s, had planned to settle in New York City. Sascha Pinczowski had apparently already spent time in New York, and had graduated from Marymount Manhattan College on New York’s upper east side.

The pair were from Maastricht but had been educated at an international school in Germany and US universities and lived in Manhattan. Sascha worked as a production intern at New York-based Shiraz events.

Koenders had not given the names of the Dutch victims. A spokeswoman for the Dutch foreign ministry said the country’s privacy rules meant there would be no official confirmation.



Three victims of the attacks had previously been named: Adelma Tapia Ruiz, 37, a Peruvian chef living with her Belgian husband and twin girls in Brussels, Leopold Hecht, a 20-year-old law student at Saint-Louis University, Brussels, and Oliver Delespesse, who worked for the Federation of Wallonia-Brussels.



“It is terrible that these people have been killed by the arbitrariness of terror,” Koenders said in a statement. “Terrorism knows no boundaries and no compassion.”

Kerry, who was in Brussels for talks with counterterrorism officials, reaffirmed the US’s commitment to Belgium following Tuesday’s attacks in an appearance with the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel.

“The United States stands firmly with Belgium and with the nations of Europe in the face of this tragedy,” Kerry said.

“We – all of us representing countless nationalities – have a message for those who inspired or carried out the attacks here or in Paris, or Ankara, or Tunis, or San Bernardino or elsewhere. We will not be intimidated,” he said.

“We will not be deterred. We will come back with greater resolve – with greater strength – and we will not rest until we have eliminated your nihilistic beliefs and cowardice from the face of the Earth.”

Belgian police have made seven arrests following the attacks at Zaventem airport and the Maelbeek metro station. Two suspects are still believed to be on the run.



Several police raids were carried out across Brussels on Thursday evening, as prosecutors released more evidence that the attacks were carried out by the same Islamic State cell responsible for November’s carnage in Paris.