Just a week after Europe was gripped with shock following the multiple Paris attacks, Belgium raised the alert status for Brussels, its capital, to its highest level. The metro was shut and the public were warned to avoid crowds because of a “serious and imminent” threat of expected attack.
One of the State Militants – 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam – who shed blood in Paris was from Brussels and still at large, though it is unclear that this was the only reason why the city was placed on the top level “four” in the governments threat scale after a meeting of top security officials.
A spokesman for the government’s crisis center said:
“The advice for the population is to avoid places where a lot of people come together like shopping centres, concerts, events or public transport stations wherever possible
The metro was shut down for the weekend and authorities are urging concerts, sports events and other crowd-gathering facilities to be canceled amid a step-up in military and police presence. It is still uncertain what prompted this alert.
Brussels has been the center of investigations into the Paris attacks and three people have already been detained and held on charges of terrorism in the city.
Investigations are proceeding.
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