Must Read Belgian troops shoot suspected bomber in Brussels station - police

[webfact]

Belgian troops shoot suspected bomber in Brussels station - police

By Francesco Guarascio and Philip Blenkinsop

 

Belgian troops take up position following an explosion at Central Station in Brussels, Belgium, June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian troops shot a suspected suicide bomber in Brussels Central Station on Tuesday but there were no other casualties and the situation was brought under control after people were evacuated, officials said.

 

A Reuters correspondent at the scene an hour after the incident - in which police said the man set off a small explosion - said the area was quiet, with police manning a cordon and a few bystanders calmly watching security forces.

 

Amid conflicting accounts of what happened, it was still unclear if the man had died. Paul de Vries, a Dutchman working in Brussels, told Reuters he saw police taking away a prisoner.

 

Nicolas Van Herrewegen, a station employee, told public broadcaster RTBF that he saw a man shouting in a lower level of the 1930s station, which serves lines running under the city centre. He then appeared to yell "Allahu Akbar" in Arabic and to detonate something on a luggage trolley. People standing within three metres of the trolley were unhurt, Herrewegen said.

 

Authorities were investigating whether it was a terrorist incident, a spokesman for the national Crisis Centre said. The national alert level was maintained at its second highest level.

 

The Belgian capital, home to the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, has been on high alert since a Brussels-based Islamic State cell launched an attack that killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015. Associates of those attackers, four months later, killed 32 people in their home city, including with bombs loaded on trolleys at Brussels Airport.

 

Combat troops have been a fixture at transport hubs and in the main public areas ever since the Paris attacks. A series of further attacks in neighbouring France and Germany in the past year, as well as recent bloodshed in London and Manchester, have added to anxiety.

 

TOURISTS EVACUATED

 

Stationmaster Jean-Michel Michel was quoted by DH newspaper saying: "We heard the explosion. My colleague thought it was a bomb. The explosion was on the mezzanine level. The man went down to platforms 3 and 4. He said 'Allahu Akbar'...

 

"I would put him at about 35 years old."

 

The station and adjacent historic downtown area, including the baroque Grand Place city square, had been packed with tourists and locals on a hot summer evening before they were evacuated.

 

The police spokesman said: "There was an incident at Central Station. There was an explosion around a person. That person was neutralised by the soldiers that were on the scene.

 

"At the moment, the police are in numbers at the station and everything is under control."

 

Prime Minister Charles Michel and the interior minister were in the national crisis centre monitoring developments.

 

(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Robert-Jan Bartunek and Jan Strupczewski; @macdonaldrtr; Editing by Gareth Jones)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-21

[canuckamuck]

Allah won't be happy with this effort.

Edited June 20, 2017 by canuckamuck

[oldhippy]

1 minute ago, canuckamuck said:

Allah won't be happy with this effort.

Indeed. Just a small time nutter, it appears.

Might get an old ladyboy instead of the 70 virgins he hoped for.

 

 

[Mosha]

Only 1 victim, him. I call that a result.

Sent from my iris 505 using Tapatalk

[klauskunkel]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Authorities were investigating whether it was a terrorist incident

I help with this:

If it yells "akbar", it's a terrorist - kill it

if it yells 'stripbar", it's a tourist - don't kill it

[paulbj2]

5 hours ago, klauskunkel said:

I help with this:

If it yells "akbar", it's a terrorist - kill it

if it yells 'stripbar", it's a tourist - don't kill it

Nah - all the strip-bars are down the side of Brussels North station, not Brussels Central!

[alocacoc]

This shit become a daily event. When the people wake up?

[oldhippy]

14 minutes ago, alocacoc said:

This shit become a daily event. When the people wake up?

It is the moderate muslims that should wake up.

A little more social control and a little less feeling of entitlement would go a long way.

 

[alocacoc]

Just now, oldhippy said:

It is the moderate muslims that should wake up.

A little more social control and a little less feeling of entitlement would go a long way.

 

The true liberals (not the zombie fake leftists), alt-right (not the fake extreme right nazis) and moderate muslims should march together. This is the majority. But by now, either you are a leftist or a nazi. Nothing between anymore. That's the narrative by our gov and media which not allows an open fair debate.