Browse content similar to 22/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello, I'm Ros Atkins, this is Outside Source. | :00:08. | :00:10. | |
So-called Islamic State claim responsibility for another terror | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
This time Brussels was the target with rush-hour bombings at the main | :00:14. | :00:19. | |
airport and a central metro station. | :00:20. | :00:21. | |
More than 30 people have been killed. | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
We'll be talking in detail about what it means for security | :00:25. | :00:26. | |
The Belgian authorities have released this photo of three | :00:27. | :00:34. | |
suspects, who may still be on the run. We'll explain more about the | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
circumstances of that photo and we're going to be covering this | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
story across the next hour. If you have any questions about it, use the | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
hashtag BBC OS. We begin in Brussels where it's been | :00:46. | :01:10. | |
an horrific stage. I need to emphasise three developments. First | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
a claim of responsibility direct from the so-called Islamic State | :01:15. | :01:21. | |
group. The director of an organisation called the site | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
intelligence groups and she tells us Isis has released the English claim | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
for the Brussels attack. Images like these very similar but in a number | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
of languages have been released by Islamic State. Second, let's bring | :01:33. | :01:39. | |
up wire copy here through the Outside Source screen. Norts | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
Brussels say they have found -- authorities in Brussels say they | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
have found chemical products and Islamic State group flag found in a | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
raid which took place today, since the bomb attacks. This is some | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
advice from the British Foreign Office in the UK: It's advising | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
British nationals against travelling to Brussels unless necessary. That | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
is directly in line with the advice the Belgian authorities are issuing | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
to Belgian nationals. Let's look at how the day's events unfolded. The | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
first we heard about this story here in the BBC Newsroom came in the form | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
of a short news wire from the Reuters news agency, quoting local | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
Belgian media. Two explosions heard at Brussels airport, cause unclear. | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
While we were seeing that, multiple messages posted on social media from | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
the airport backing up what that news wire was telling us. In fact, | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
it was established relatively quickly that the explosions were at | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
7 GMT, 8am local time. While the emergency services were rushing to | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
the airport to help those who'd been injured, there was another explosion | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
in the centre of town, at Maalbeek Metro station. We'll get to the | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
Metro station in a couple of minutes. First' let's focus on the | :02:55. | :03:04. | |
two explosions at Zavantem airport. At the moment the authorities are | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
saying 11 people died here, 81 were wounded. This diagram helps us | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
explain better what happened. First, there was an explosion in the | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
check-in area. Then an explosion near a Starbucks cafe. Both of these | :03:18. | :03:20. | |
areas are places where you wouldn't have had to go through any security | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
checks to reach. Then the authorities initially mistakenly, | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
but they confirmed this image was a real one from CCTV, it shows three | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
men, all considered to be suspects by the police. It's not known if | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
they're still alive or if the suicide bomber is among them. One | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
detail a lot of people are focussing on, these two men are both wearing | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
black gloves on their left hand, no glove on their right hand. Certainly | :03:50. | :03:52. | |
a strange thing to do. There's speculation that those gloves could | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
have disguised detonators, though at this stage, it's possible to say -- | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
impossible to say if that's the case. As the story was developing, | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
lots of pictures were coming into the BBC News room. Let's have a look | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
at some of them. These are pictures filmed by someone who was in that | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
check-in area. You can see the terrible aftermath of these | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
explosions with people running, smoke everywhere and debris | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
everywhere. These are pictures from outside where hundreds and hundreds | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
of people were guided out of the airport terminal, given advice by | :04:27. | :04:29. | |
the police as to where to go and while they came out, of course, the | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
emergency services were going in. Some of those people who witnessed | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
this terrible attack have been speaking about what they saw. I was | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
having my break. I was inside the building. We just heard a loud bang. | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
Everything was shaking. We look outside the window. There was smoke | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
coming out of the departure hall. I thought I was hurt, I was hit. Then | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
there were two people who were working on the airport. They told me | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
just to come inside. They locked the door. People started panicking, | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
running. The only thing I was seeing was just dust in the air, like | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
people running to save their lives. There was some announcement, clearly | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
something had gone wrong. The woman's voice was like quiet shaken | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
on the intercom. That's when I know we should move. The question from | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
Terry about why Brussels would have been a target, we'll get into that | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
in five or ten minutes with Gordon Corera. If you have questions send | :05:33. | :05:40. | |
them in. Next let's turn from the airport to Maalbeek Metro, 11 | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
kilometres from the airport. We know a train had just left of the station | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
when a bomb exploded. At least 20 people were killed over 100 were | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
injured. To give you an idea of how central this is. There's the Metro | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
station, here's the European Commission, council of the European | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
Union, the European Parliament. This is within easy walking distance of | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
that station. Several of you have been saying, where does this fit | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
into what happened last week? Let me explain. If we go four kilometres | :06:11. | :06:17. | |
across town, we reach the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels, which is where | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
on Friday, the suspected ring leader of November's Paris attacks was | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
picked up, Salah Abdeslam. We know that one image that's been shared a | :06:29. | :06:31. | |
lot from the Metro in the aftermath of that bomb is this one, dark with | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
people being guided off the carriages. As well as these stills, | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
lots of images started to come into the newsroom. For instance, this is | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
a video very similar to that still, where we sow people being helped -- | :06:44. | :06:49. | |
see people being helped in almost darkness to walk down the tunnel and | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
back to safety. It's rush hour, that's why it's so busy. This gives | :06:54. | :06:56. | |
you an idea of the scale of the explosion. This is the entrance to | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
the Metro station and the smoke has made its way all the way up from the | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
tunnel and out through the entrance way. Very soon after these pictures, | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
a couple of pictures to show you, these ones give you an idea of the | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
way the emergency services had to treat the injured immediately on the | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
pavement right there and then to give them the help they needed. Some | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
of those caught up in that attack have also been describing their | :07:20. | :07:26. | |
experiences. In between the stations, when we felt a small blast | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
of air. We heard thudding in the distance. The Metro immediately | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
stopped. The lights turned off. The engine turned off and a message came | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
over the intercom saying there had been a disturbance on the line, that | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
continued for a few minutes. People were obviously nervous. I think a | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
lot of people, like myself, had been reading about the explosion at | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
Brussels airport, as they were on their way to work. Train staff came | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
through and I asked one of them, "Was there an explosion? And the | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
woman would worked for the rail service said yes, then her colleague | :08:02. | :08:03. | |
followed and I asked where the explosion was. He said Maalbeek. So | :08:04. | :08:09. | |
then we were evacuated. They turned off the electricity on the line. We | :08:10. | :08:17. | |
walked out the back of the carriage. This is how the Belgian prime | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
minister has described today calling it a black moment for our country, | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
now more than ever I would like to appeal to all to be calm and show | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
solidarity. The French government has used even stronger language, "We | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
are at war. We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
acts of war." A couple of viewers asking what's happened to the three | :08:42. | :08:44. | |
men in that photo that I've just shown you. Let's bring in the BBC's | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
Ben Brown, who is just by the airport in Brussels. What more do we | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
know about those three men and where they may be now? Well, the | :08:53. | :09:00. | |
indication we were getting from Belgian police were perhaps two of | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
those three were dead, in other words that they were suicide bombers | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
or killed in the attack today. The third, who is the one on the right, | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
wearing the hat, is still at large. Now an arrest warrant has been put | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
out for him. It seems he managed to escape, just one of the three | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
managed to escape. 11 killed in the attack here at the Brussels | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
international airport. It's interesting and significant that a | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
third device was found later on, unexploded. So two went off. The | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
first one went off around 8am, this morning, local time. Then as people | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
were running from that first explosion, there was a second | :09:40. | :09:42. | |
explosion in which many people seemed to have been caught up, as | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
they were running from the first blast. Then later on, a third device | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
was found. So it does seem that perhaps, And this is speculation, | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
that those three attackers you saw in the CCTV image, pushing trolleys, | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
they each had a device, but somehow the third man, the one in the hat | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
didn't detonate his device. So that third device was later found and he, | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
it seems, is still on the run. Also was found in the airport here a | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
Kalashnikov assault rifle. I should just say, in the last hour or so, | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
they've really beefed up the security presence around the | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
airport. About half a dozen truck loads of Belgian army troops just | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
rolled past us here and went straight into the airport. We gather | :10:29. | :10:31. | |
the airport won't be re-opening any time soon. This is a crime scene, of | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
course. A huge forensic investigation is under way into | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
exactly what happened. It won't re-open until Thursday at least. It | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
is normally a very busy airport, both around Europe, flights around | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
Europe and around the world. When the bombers struck at 8am this | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
morning, it was particularly busy. This is a huge tragedy for Belgium, | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
how's the country planning to mark those who it's lost? It is, of | :10:58. | :11:04. | |
course. In a sense, it's a tragedy that ever since the Paris attacks, | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
back in November, that killed 130 people, and the very strong links | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
between Brussels, the Molenbeek area of Brussels and some of the Paris | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
attackers, ever since those links emerged, Brussels has been a city | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
bracing itself for attack. I was here on Friday, when Salah Abdeslam | :11:26. | :11:32. | |
was arrested. That 26-year-old suspect behind the Paris attacks, | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
there are Belgian troops walking around the city, there have been for | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
weeks. Brussels has almost got used to being in a state of preparing | :11:43. | :11:51. | |
itself for an attack. People still can't believe it has happened. Three | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
days of national mourning have been declared. There's a vigil going on | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
right now in the centre of Brussels, several vigils, actually, where | :12:01. | :12:02. | |
people are remembering the dead and the injured. The king of Belgium has | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
said that he and the queen share the pain of all the people, all the | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
victims and their families and all the people of Belgium and has said | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
that this was cowardly and odious attack. Thank you very much. Ben | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
Brown live from just by the airport in Brussels. Lots of people sharing | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
this image of the Eiffel Tower coloured in the colours of the | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
Belgian flag this evening, just that's was in the colours of the | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
French flag after the Paris attacks. Some European leaders are trying to | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
identify this not as an attack on Brussels or Belgium, but as an | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
attack on the whole of Europe. TRANSLATION: The terrorists have | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
struck Belgium, but it is Europe which has been targeted. It is the | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
whole world which is concerned with this. We should take conscience of | :12:56. | :13:03. | |
the magnitude and the gravity of the threat, terrorist threat. These were | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
attacks in Belgium. They could just as well be attacks in Britain, | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
France, Germany or elsewhere in Europe. We need to stand together | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
against these appalling terrorists and make sure they can never win. | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
There's David Cameron. Countries across Europe have been stepping up | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
security measures. Speaking of the Prime Minister, here he is on | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
Twitter telling us that the UK will be increasing police presence at | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
ports, airports, tube stations and international railway stations. The | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
French are deploying 1600 police officers in a number of different | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
locations. Germany too has stepped up security measures on a number of | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
its borders, including that with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
and also with France. All of these attacks today have put the Schengen | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
zone back in the spotlight. We have talked about Schengen a lot. This is | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
the free movement zone which all these countries in blue are members | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
of. If you are within it, you can move around very freely. The fear is | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
that very ability to move freely is making it easier to organise | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
attacks, such as these. Paris has raised lots of questions on how | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
Europe stops these attacks. What's happened today in Brussels adds | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
urgency to the need for answers. Let's speak to our Security | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
Correspondent, Gordon Corera. Lots of viewers sending in messages, | :14:23. | :14:25. | |
several saying why would IS target Brussels? Well Brussels, the heart | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
of Europe, the heart of the European Union. They've been trying to target | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
a lot of European countries. The statement they put out today, which | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
we think is linked to IS and comes from one of their registered or | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
standard media accounts just says that Brussels was targeted as one of | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
the crusader capitals, if you like. Whether it's linked to the arrest on | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
Friday of Salah Abdeslam, that's less clear. What the links are | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
between the group that carried out this attack and the Paris network | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
still a bit unclear. It is possible that there's a direct link, that | :15:00. | :15:02. | |
these are people that are also involved in Paris and that perhaps | :15:03. | :15:06. | |
they felt the net closing in on them and decided to push forward plans to | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
carry out an attack. Or it could be a completely separate cell. We don't | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
know that yet for sure. We talked after the Paris attacks and | :15:14. | :15:16. | |
discussed the Schengen zone and discussed the fact that the | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
different agencies across Europe perhaps weren't sharing information | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
as they might have done. Those same questions are going to come again. | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
That's right. There's a question within Belgium itself, how good is | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
the information sharing there? It is a country which has had problems. | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
The issue of jihadism in Belgium has been deep rooted there for many | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
years. A very high proportion relatively have been going from | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
Belgium to Iraq and Syria compared to other European countries. 100 | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
from Brussels alone organise to one think-tank. Brussels has this issue | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
here. Plus the question of information sharing within Belgium | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
are the police and Security Services talking to each other? And then | :15:54. | :15:57. | |
there's the European question - are European services sharing with each | :15:58. | :16:01. | |
other? Are they putting enough information into databases so when | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
people reach borders the authorities know they're on the watch list of | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
one country. There are still concerns that process is not good | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
enough yet. Why wasn't Brussels on its highest level of alert given | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
what happened last week? It was on its highest level of alert, it's | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
been there at previous points. It's a good question. Perhaps they had no | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
indication whatsoever about this. It is hard for cities to remain on the | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
highest level of alert over extended periods. It often means impacting | :16:31. | :16:39. | |
people's journeys. If you don't have the highest intelligence you don't | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
stay at the top level of threat. It's very hard to stop them, but | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
what measures are now available to Belgium, but more broadly the | :16:48. | :16:50. | |
European Union, to offer some comfort to people who tonight are | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
incredibly worried? What's clear since the Paris attacks is that IS | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
has been shifting towards softer targets. Rather than hit military, | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
government, police, they were looking in Paris at concerts, | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
football stadiums and today, we saw airports and the Metro. Clearly | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
there will be now more focus on the transport hubs, what more can be | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
done. They are difficult to secure. A lot of people go through them. The | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
point is they're supposed to facilitate movement. If you put too | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
many layers of security in front of them you slow that down enormously | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
and make daily life much harder. People will look at whether there | :17:31. | :17:37. | |
are ways to improve perimeter security, explosives detection at | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
transport hubs, if that is up the IS target list. Thank you very much. | :17:41. | :17:43. | |
Thanks for sending in your questions. I hope that has helped | :17:44. | :17:46. | |
explain the story a little bit further. Now let's look in more | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
detail at the city of Brussels. It was also in the news repeatedly last | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
week. On Tuesday last week police raided a flat in a suburb called | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
Forest. One man was killed, linked to the Paris attacks, two others | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
escaped. We were told that a fingerprint from this man, Salah | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
Abdeslam, one of the main suspects in the Paris attacks, was foubd in | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
the flat. Fast forward to Friday, another raid. This time in the area | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
of Molenbeek. A part of Brussels we've discussed a lot because of its | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
association was radical Islam. Salah Abdeslam was caught. You may have | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
seen this footage. GUNFIRE There's a brief shootout | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
with police before he was wounded and then he was taken into custody. | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
Another man was also taken into custody. It became clear that | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
Abdeslam had returned to Belgium soon after the Paris attacks. Well, | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
the Molenbeek district where Abdeslam was captured is connected | :18:54. | :18:56. | |
to a number of the suspects from the Paris attacks. It's become symbolic | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
of Belgium's problems with Islamist extremists. This is also illustrated | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
by the number of Belgian fighters who have travelled to Syria to fight | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
for Islamic State. These are the latest figures we have: 451 is the | :19:10. | :19:27. | |
latest figure. Per capita, twice as many than France, four times as many | :19:28. | :19:35. | |
as Britain. An expert on radicalisation based at Kings | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
College London told us his thoughts about these statistics. I think it | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
underscores the depth and the extent of the radical network that exists | :19:44. | :19:50. | |
within Belgium. We had the arrest a few days ago of Salah Abdeslam, one | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
of the key perpetrators of the Paris attacks last November, which | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
obviously devastated the French capital back then. It does really | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
speak to the size and the sophistication of what we're seeing | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
in Europe right now. If there is a network of the kind of scale which | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
you allude to, isn't it an intelligence failure that the | :20:13. | :20:14. | |
Belgians and French and others have not been able to understand it | :20:15. | :20:20. | |
better? Absolutely. I think all the intelligence agencies were caught on | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
the hop by Syria and particularly in the early stageds in 012 -- stages | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
in 2012 and 2013 by the flow of foreign fighters going out there. I | :20:31. | :20:33. | |
don't think anyone was prepared for the magnitude for what unravelled at | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
that time. Now the intelligence agencies need to be cooperating a | :20:38. | :20:45. | |
lot more closely. The French said something similar today in having a | :20:46. | :20:47. | |
united European response to this. This is a challenge that faces all | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
of us, particularly on the continent, where there is the | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
availability of weapons that are more easily accessible than in the | :20:56. | :21:03. | |
UK by comparison. We need to have a more joined-up intelligence network | :21:04. | :21:12. | |
helping to us ID I these people. We were repeatedly told don't see | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
Al-Qaeda as a coherent network taking instruction from the top. How | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
would you characterise the way Islamic State is operating its | :21:20. | :21:22. | |
networks now? Of course, Al-Qaeda was a much more difus than Islamic | :21:23. | :21:28. | |
State, because it couldn't hold territory, particularly in the | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
aftermath of September 11th. In the place it's did hold territory, they | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
were difficult to reach and hard to access. In the past, you had to go | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
to Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan. These were not easily accessible. | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
Syria and Iraq are more readily available in terms of transport and | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
getting there. We've seen large numbers of European citizens migrate | :21:50. | :21:52. | |
there. Perhaps something like 5,000 from Europe as a whole over the last | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
four or five years. You have this critical mass of people who are | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
there, who are living in a highly permissive environment for learning | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
bomb-making skills, where they can train with heavy weaponry and with | :22:07. | :22:09. | |
the things we don't want them to have access to and to come back to | :22:10. | :22:13. | |
Europe and unleash this kind of thing. It's worth saying briefly | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
that whilst events like Paris last year were clearly directed, these | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
people had been sent back from Islamic State, we've also seen | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
self-start ere vents as well, where individuals have not travelled | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
there, but carried out attacks in the name of the group. We will | :22:30. | :22:32. | |
continue to see that. But it's the directed attacks that pose the most | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
significant challenge. Here's a tweet: Jonathan is watching in the | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
north of England. What impact will today's news have on airport | :22:43. | :22:45. | |
security? Will we see pre-airport entry security? We're going to turn | :22:46. | :22:51. | |
that this issue now. The first of the two targets in Brussels was the | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
airport. In response Gordon alluded to this, security has been stepped | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
up. This is Frankfurt, one of Germany's busiest airports. This is | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
Amsterdam. You can see the heavy security. This is Rome's main | :23:07. | :23:09. | |
airport. These are short-term responses, but in the long-term, a | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
lot of people are asking this question: | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
"I have a feeling this could be the beginning of Europe-wide airport | :23:20. | :23:26. | |
security checks before we enter the airport." Here's our transport | :23:27. | :23:30. | |
correspondent with a report on just these issues. | :23:31. | :23:37. | |
They're image that's will inevitably frighten travellers, the attackers | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
focussing on soft targets, airports, underground trains. Just like in | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
London, a decade ago, picking on ordinary people. But can you ever | :23:46. | :23:53. | |
make the transport system safe? We're all familiar with airport | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
security checks like these. But critically, the Brussels bombers | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
never went through them. The thing is, there are still large parts of | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
airports, before you get to security, that are effectively big, | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
open, public places where anybody can walk in, carrying a bag and | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
posing as a passenger. It's not just airports. It's the underground | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
network as well. It's big railway stations. The reality is it's nigh | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
on impossible to keep the whole transport network completely safe. | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
Already you'll see more police patrolling Britain's railway | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
stations and airports. The Prime Minister insisting they're well | :24:37. | :24:39. | |
prepared. If there is information that implies there's a direct threat | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
to the United Kingdom, then we'd raise the security threat level even | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
higher than it is today. But it already stands at severe, which | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
means we believe an attack is highly likely. That has been the case for | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
some time. We will continue to keep the situation under review. Some | :24:56. | :25:01. | |
airports, especially in the Middle East, screen passengers before | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
they're allowed into the building. Every time you come up with a | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
solution, there's always a problem associated with it... The former | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
head of security at Heathrow says that can create its own problems. | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
You'd be building up queues outside the terminal. Then you're massing | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
agroup of people, which are another perfect target for a bomber or | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
drive-by shooter. Experts say the best way to stop this is to know the | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
attack's coming in advance, through surveillance and tip-offs. Tonight | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
the Government's warning Britons not to travel to Brussels unless | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
essential. If you want to follow this story | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
online, there's a live page running through the BBC News app and the BBC | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
News we site. I'm back with you in a couple of minutes, with ongoing | :25:51. | :25:53. | |
coverage of these Brussels attacks. | :25:54. | :25:56. |