Setting New Bomb, Suspected Brussel Suicide Bomber Shot
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BRUSSELS - Belgian soldiers have shot a man suspected of being a would-be suicide bomber at Brussels Central Station.
Officials say, suspect was shot after reportedly setting off a small explosion and no-one else is believed to have been injured. Police say the situation is under control. The station and the city's Grand Place were evacuated.
In March 2016, 32 people died in attacks on Brussels claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
According to Belgian newspaper La Libre, quoting prosecutors, the man who was shot was wearing a rucksack and a bomb belt. He detonated a device when he attracted the attention of soldiers in the station, the paper says.
Several Belgian media outlets quote witnesses as saying the man shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic) before setting off the explosion.
The condition of the injured suspect was not immediately known.
Nicolas Van Herrewegen, a railway sorting agent, told reporters he had gone down to the station's mezzanine level when he heard someone shouting.
"Then he cried 'Allahu Akbar' and he blew up a trolley. I was behind a wall when it exploded. I went down and alerted my colleagues to evacuate everyone. He (the suspect) was still around but after that we didn't see him. It wasn't exactly a big explosion but the impact was pretty big," he added. People were running away," he said quoted by AFP news agency.
Van Herrewegen described the suspect as well-built and tanned with short hair, wearing a white shirt and jeans.
"I saw that he had something on him because I could see wires emerging, so it may have been a suicide vest," he said.
Officials say, suspect was shot after reportedly setting off a small explosion and no-one else is believed to have been injured. Police say the situation is under control. The station and the city's Grand Place were evacuated.
In March 2016, 32 people died in attacks on Brussels claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
According to Belgian newspaper La Libre, quoting prosecutors, the man who was shot was wearing a rucksack and a bomb belt. He detonated a device when he attracted the attention of soldiers in the station, the paper says.
Several Belgian media outlets quote witnesses as saying the man shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great" in Arabic) before setting off the explosion.
The condition of the injured suspect was not immediately known.
Nicolas Van Herrewegen, a railway sorting agent, told reporters he had gone down to the station's mezzanine level when he heard someone shouting.
"Then he cried 'Allahu Akbar' and he blew up a trolley. I was behind a wall when it exploded. I went down and alerted my colleagues to evacuate everyone. He (the suspect) was still around but after that we didn't see him. It wasn't exactly a big explosion but the impact was pretty big," he added. People were running away," he said quoted by AFP news agency.
Van Herrewegen described the suspect as well-built and tanned with short hair, wearing a white shirt and jeans.
"I saw that he had something on him because I could see wires emerging, so it may have been a suicide vest," he said.
(rnz)