The institution reported late Tuesday followingnoon to the police the receipt of an email written in Russian and threatening to blow up the Brussels metro this Wednesday, March 8. Although this threat seems implausible thanks to its level of precision, the authorities take it very seriously. Contacted Wednesday morning, the National Crisis Center confirms that it is monitoring the situation closely and an investigation has also been opened by the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. The police were able to carry out checks in the Brussels metro and patrols are reinforced.
According to Le Soir, a man has contacted the European institution twice by email in recent weeks. A first message of February 16 did not contain anything alarming. However on March 3, the individual sent a message which was clearly threatening: “As the EU continues its aggressive policy, I would like to warn of the beginning of massive terrorist attacks on EU territory”. He also threatened to eliminate “LGBT and other minorities” and to attack heads of state and government. The email ends by announcing the planned attack on the metro: “On March 8, the metro in Brussels will be blown up between Yser and Rogier”.
The federal police told our Sudinfo colleagues that they had carried out in-depth searches in the various stations: “We took this very seriously, we carried out a sweep with police dogs capable of detecting explosives which turned out to be negative, but we remain very vigilant, all the police services are on alert. The Brussels public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation to identify the author(s) of this threat of a bomb attack”.
The security services consider the threat of an attack in the Brussels metro unlikely
The search for explosive devices in the Brussels metro, carried out by the federal police, turned out to be negative, the National Crisis Center said on Wednesday, following information reported a threat targeting the underground network. of public transport. “The analysis of an electronic message – including by the Coordination Body for Threat Analysis (Ocam) – demonstrates that the threat of an attack today in the Brussels metro is unlikely.”
Increased vigilance on all the Brussels metro lines is however maintained as a precaution, continues the Crisis Center, which specifies that all the security services are monitoring the situation closely and “constantly analyze the information in order to guarantee the security in our country”. “Any possible threat is taken seriously by these services.”
The British and American embassies have, for their part, sent a warning to their nationals.
Ocam maintained the overall threat level for Belgium at 2 on a scale of 4, i.e. a “medium” level.
