This harrowing footage shows the moment a crying baby girl was found sitting on the body of what appears to be her dead mother in the chaotic aftermath of the Brussels airport bombing.

As the terminal lies burning and covered in debris, the distressed child sits alone and wailing as the first rescuers make their way through the rubble.

Tragically, police told taxi driver Francisco Izquierdo, who recorded the footage broadcast on CNN, not to help the girl - as she would be easier to identify if she was next to her mother.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

The young girl (pictured) was filmed sitting on the body of a woman believed to be her dead mother as taxi driver Francisco Izquierdo made his way through the rubble

Her cries can be heard ringing out through the airport terminal as emergency responders douse fires and assist the injured amid the devastation

The two bombs that ripped through Brussels airport are believed to have been detonated by suicide bombers Ibrahim El Bakraoui and explosives expert Najim Laachraou.

The pair triggered the explosions while a third bomb, placed by the mystery 'Man in White', failed to detonate.

Approximately an hour after the bombings El Bakraoui's brother Khalid detonated his own suicide vest on the city metro, killing another 21.

Mr Izquierdo was making his way through the airport wreckage in the hopes of finding his son who worked at the airport's food hall.

The traumatised driver says he has been haunted by the young girl's cries: 'Those images stayed with me in my mind, and I keep seeing the girl crying, crying, crying. She is just a girl,' he told CNN.

The video came to light on a day of rapid developments in Brussels as:

It emerged that police were hunting a second suspected Metro bomber, who was caught on camera alongside Khalid El Bakraoui;

Officers launched a search for four other suspects seen 'shadowing' the airport bombers, as well as a mysterious 'Man in White' who abandoned a bomb at the terminal;

Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam appeared in court and said he would not oppose extradition to France;

Turkish authorities said that Ibrahim El Bakraoui had twice been arrested and deported to Europe on suspicion of terrorism;

Two Belgian ministers offered to resign over the apparent security failures;

Local media revealed that the bombers had been plotting to target a nuclear power plant and hold the boss hostage.

Mr Izquierdo has since admitted to being haunted by the young girl's cries, but he was told not to help her as she would be easier to identify if she was next to her mother

Mr Izquierdo's footage provides an insight into the immediate aftermath of the terror bombings and was filmed as he searched for his son who worked in the building

Francisco Izquierdo captured the heartbreaking scenes shortly after the explosions on Tuesday morning

Describing how he found the youngster, Mr Izquierdo said: 'I felt like I was in the middle of a war. It was incredible, it was horrible.

'Parts of the airport were still on fire from the explosions when I entered and there were two firemen putting out the flames and another two who were helping the injured.

'I saw the girl crying when I went back in. She had blood all over her face. I rushed outside to find a woman police officer and tell her.

'She came back in with me but the firemen said the mother was there and we had to leave her. I understand now it was so they knew she was the child's mother. The girl was very little.

'I came across two or three other injured people who I tried to calm her by telling them help was on the way.

'It was only afterwards that I managed to speak with my son and discover he was OK.

'Then I retraced my steps and moved some of the debris out of the way a bit to clear a path for the security people and members of the public trying to leave the area.

'There was a lot of crying and groaning but I couldn't place where the noises were coming from. I just had my son in my mind.'

He admitted: 'It crossed my mind that I could also be in danger but if we're not prepared to help each other, what hope is there?

'I've still got the image of that little girl in my head and it makes me feel bad. I'm still trying to assimilate and digest what I saw.

'I sent the images I had recorded to my daughter and she texted me while I was still at the airport to ask why I had left the girl and not taken her.

'That's stayed in my mind and I can still see her face, crying and crying and crying. I don't feel guilty because I didn't do anything wrong but I feel upset.'

Chilling: This CCTV image shows the Brussels airport terminal less than a minute before the bomb went off

Killers: Najim Laachraoui, left, blew himself up in Brussels airport; fellow terrorist Ibrahim El Bakraoui is pictured right in a Turkish police mugshot

The second suicide bomber (left) who blew himself up at Brussels airport has been identified as master bombmaker Najim Laachraoui as police search for the mystery man in white. The bomber in the middle is believed to be Ibrahim El Bakraoui

He joked: 'It's maybe not a normal thing to do to enter an airport after a bomb's gone off but my wife says I'm not normal.

'The authorities didn't want to let me in but I almost entered by force. I knew my son was inside and no-one was going to stop me.'

The lengthy footage recorded by Mr Izquierdo offers a glimpse into the immediate aftermath of the airport bombing in which 10 people died.

Thousands of ceiling tiles lie scattered across the terminal floor, while early emergency responders can be seen dousing fires with extinguishers.

Firefighter Dirk Meys also revealed the moment he found a young girl in the airport whose mother had been killed and father seriously injured.

He told Het Laatste Nieuws that he rushed to the scene on his day off, and once he entered the terminal found a four-year-old Peruvian girl sitting on the ground.

'Her mother had just died, her father was injured and in shock,' Mr Meys said. 'I didn't want her to continue sitting in the blood.

'She grabbed on to me... I thought of my own children, my own daughter who is the same age.'

It is not known whether the girl helped by Mr Meys is the same one featured in Mr Izquierdo's video.

The first victim of the attacks to be publicly named was Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz, a Peruvian mother who was at the airport with her husband and two children.

Watchful: Police officers outside the Brussels council headquarters today as the authorities continue their investigation

Search: Armed police were pictured checking cars in central Brussels today as the city continued in a state of high alert

Jan Vaes was one of the first paramedics on the scene and described stumbling across a mother and child in the aftermath of the blasts - though it is not clear if this is the pair seen in the video.

He said: 'I saw a mother lying covered in blood, and a toddler lying on top of her. I checked the child was breathing. The child had shrapnel wounds - pieces of metal - from the blast.

'And then I asked the mother if she was okay. "I'm okay - but how is my child?" she said.'

Mr Vaes, who was in charge of assessing people to choose which hospital could best treat their injuries, begged a fireman he knew to travel with the distraught mother, who was English-speaking, and the little one, who was about three.

'He came back 40 minutes later saying the mother and child were in relatively good shape.'

Although he admitted having doubts about his course of action, he added: 'In the moment, you have to make a decision,' Mr Vaes said. 'I just hope someone says to me the mother and child, they are fine. Then I will be happy.'

Yesterday it emerged the terror attack could have been far worse as a third bomb failed to explode.

Transfer: A car believed to be carrying arrested terror suspect Salah Abdeslam from prison in Bruges to a court hearing in Brussels today

Defence: Soldiers took to the streets in armed vehicles in a bid to help secure Brussels following the attacks

Two men - believed to be Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim El Bakraoui - blew themselves up in the airport's departure hall and a third ran off, leaving the heaviest of their explosive device which security services later detonated.

Meanwhile, today it was claimed at least five Brussels terror suspects including the ‘Man in White’ were on the run after the suicide attacks at the airport and metro left at least 34 people dead.

It has also emerged a second bomber was spotted on the Brussels Metro alongside jihadist Khalid El Bakraoui, raising the possibility that police may be hunting yet another suspect.

Four unidentified men were allegedly seen ‘shadowing’ the blasts from inside an Audi S4 car registered to a known extremist on a watch list, according to reports today.

They are being hunted along with the fifth individual, the ‘Man in White’, who was seen dressed in a raincoat and hat ahead of Tuesday’s airport attack.

In the wake of the disaster, the worst terror attack ever to hit Belgium, the country's interior and justice ministers both offered to resign today.

Jan Jambon and Koen Geens handed their resignations to prime minister Charles Michel, but the premier asked to two men to continue in their posts.

The ministers' offer to quit is believed to be linked to the apparent security failings which allowed the bombers to stay on the streets despite evidence linking them to violent extremism.

It emerged today that Ibrahim El Bakraoui was twice deported from Turkey last year, but was set free by European authorities even though they were told by their Turkish counterparts that he could present a terror threat.

Two women who suffered wounds to their heads and arms lie in the terminal following the terror attack

The twin explosions, carried out by the same ISIS cell responsible for the Paris attacks, killed 10 people

The Brussels terrorist gang were also preparing an attack on a nuclear power plant, according to newspaper Derniere Heure. The ISIS cell were spying on the Belgian’s nuclear power chief, possibly as part of a kidnap plan to force him to let them into an atomic facility.

Hours of film of the home of the Research and Development Director of the Belgian Nuclear Programme were discovered in an apartment in Brussels raided by anti-terrorist police following the attack in Paris.

Salah Abdeslam, the Paris terror suspect whose arrest last week is thought to have prompted the Brussels atrocities, appeared in front of judges in a city court today.

Following the hearing, his lawyer insisted that Abdeslam had no knowledge of the imminent attacks on Brussels despite the suggestion that they were carried out as revenge for his arrest.

The lawyer also said that the prisoner had refused to help Belgian police when they questioned him about the whereabouts of the missing suspects believed to have carried out this week's bombings.

EU security ministers are set to meet in the terror-hit city later today for a summit intended to demonstrate 'solidarity' with Belgium and discuss new measures to defeat extremism.