Suspect shot dead after setting off explosion at Brussels train station
The police are trying to identify the man, and investigators are treating the incident as a ‘terrorist attack’.
The Belgian Police on Tuesday said a man had been shot dead by military patrols in Brussels after they suspected he had set off an explosion at the Central train station. The counter-terrorism police are trying to identify the suspect, Reuters reported.
The military patrols, who are deployed to secure areas in Brussels since the March 2016 attacks, found the suspect lugging around a backpack and wearing an explosive belt. There were no other casualties in the incident.
Train services were suspended, and the police have evacuated the site and cleared the tourist-filled streets as bomb disposal teams worked, according to Al Jazeera.
“We consider this a terrorist attack,” said prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt. A number of eyewitnesses said the man had shouted Islamist slogans such as “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater) in Arabic before setting of one or two small blasts in the crowded station.
Suicide bombings in the metro system and an airport in the city had killed 32 people and injured more than a hundred others.