BRUSSELS, March 22: At least 34 people were killed and dozens injured in twin attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on Tuesday, triggering security alerts across western Europe and bringing some cross-border transport to a halt.
Belgian public broadcaster VRT raised the death toll the attacks in Brussels to 34, with 20 people killed in the blast on a metro train and 14 in explosions at the airport.
The federal prosecutor said one of the blasts was probably triggered by a suicide bomber at the packed departure lounge at Brussels airport.
The STIB public transport operator said at least 55 others were wounded in the Brussels Metro explosion, with 10 injured said to be in a critical condition. The bomb exploded just as the train arrived at metro station during the morning rush hour.
The blasts at the airport and metro station occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in November militant attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.
Belgian police and combat troops on the streets had been on alert for any reprisal action but the attacks took place in crowded public areas where people and bags are not searched.
Video showed devastation in the hall with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor. Some passengers emerged from the terminal with blood spattered over their clothes. Smoke rose from the building through shattered windows and passengers fled down a slipway, some still hauling their bags.
Many of the dead and wounded were badly injured in the legs, one airport told news agency Reuters, suggesting at least one bomb in a bag.
Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, all wary of spillover from conflict in Syria, were among states announcing extra security measures.
All public transport in Brussels was shut down, as it was in London during 2005 terrorist attacks there that killed 52.
Authorities appealed to citizens not to use overloaded telephone networks, extra troops were sent into the city and the Belgian Crisis Centre, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the population: “Stay where you are”.
Alphonse Youla, 40, who works at the airport, told Reuters he heard a man shouting out in Arabic before the first explosion. “Then the glass ceiling of the airport collapsed.”
“I helped carry out five people dead, their legs destroyed,” he said, his hands covered in blood.
A witness said the blasts occurred at a check-in desk.
Belgium’s royal palace in central Brussels was also evacuated following the bomb blasts at the nearby metro station and the city’s airport that left a total of 26 dead, Belgian public broadcaster RTBF said.
The broadcaster said King Philippe and Queen Mathilde were in shock, but it did not specify whether they had actually been in residence on Tuesday.
The palace could not immediately be reached for comment.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel spoke of “a black time for our country”.
“What we feared has come to pass. Our country has been struck by attacks which are blind, violent and cowardly.”
The blast hit the train as it left Maelbeek station, close to European Union institutions, heading to the city centre.
The VRT public broadcaster carried a photograph of a metro carriage at a platform with doors and windows completely blown out, its structure deformed and the interior mangled and charred.
A local journalist tweeted a photograph of a person lying covered in blood among smoke outside Maelbeek metro station, on the main Rue de la Loi avenue which connects central Brussels with the EU institutions.-Agencies