Belgium Warns of Paris-Style Attack, Brussels in Lockdown

Brussels faces an imminent threat of a Paris-style Islamic State terrorist attack, authorities warned, as the city shut down its metro system and shopping malls, canceled sporting and cultural events and told people to avoid gathering in large groups.

   The government raised the Belgian capital’s terror alert to its highest level, signaling a very serious threat as armored vehicles rolled through the streets and police searched the home of one of the suspects arrested in connection with the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. Earlier the leaders of France and the U.K. hailed a United Nations vote for a global assault on IS.

   “We have precise information that outlines the risk of an attack similar to the one that unfolded in Paris,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told a press conference Saturday morning in Brussels. “It is a threat based on the theory that it would take place with arms and explosives, maybe even in several places and at the same time.”

   The Belgian capital, which houses most of the institutions of the European Union and NATO, has been on alert since it emerged that at least three jihadists behind the Paris terrorist attacks had lived in the city. Salah Abdeslam, one of two brothers believed to have been involved and now the focus of an international manhunt, comes from the Brussels district of Molenbeek.

   Abdeslam may possess an explosive belt, according to Hamza Attou, the man who helped him flee to Brussels after the Paris attacks, Carine Coquelet, Attou’s lawyer, said in an interview published by RTBF. On the drive from Paris, Abdeslam and Attou were “stopped three times by French authorities and each time they showed their identity documents,” Coquelet told the broadcaster.

Πηγή: bloomberg.com