22/03/2016

:00:43. > :00:55.Video footage from the airport shows people running away from the scene.

:00:56. > :01:01.There are reports of someone shouting in Arabic before shots were

:01:02. > :01:05.heard. Chaotic scenes followed at the airport which has now been

:01:06. > :01:16.evacuated and has been closed until further notice. All planes heading

:01:17. > :01:22.to Zaventem airport have been diverted. Brussels has raised its

:01:23. > :01:27.security level to maximum across the country. There has also been an

:01:28. > :01:33.explosion at a metro station close to the main European Union buildings

:01:34. > :01:38.in the capital. These pictures show black smoke billowing. The Metro

:01:39. > :01:42.station network is now closing and the EU has ordered its staff who

:01:43. > :01:48.have arrived at work to remain indoors. There is a wider caution

:01:49. > :01:54.for all people in Brussels. The Belgian crisis Centre has told

:01:55. > :02:03.people to stay where they are. All public transport in Brussels has

:02:04. > :02:05.been closed. The explosions in Brussels come four days after the

:02:06. > :02:09.capture in the city of Salah Abdeslam, who police say was one of

:02:10. > :02:13.the men behind the Paris attacks in December. The Belgian Foreign

:02:14. > :02:17.Ministry warned that the discovery of a cache of weapons meant that

:02:18. > :02:24.Salah Abdeslam's accomplices could carry out further attacks. Police

:02:25. > :02:28.say the attacks in Paris which killed 130 people, were largely

:02:29. > :02:33.planned in Brussels by people linked to Islamic State.

:02:34. > :02:37.Here, David Cameron has tweeted: I am shocked and concerned by events

:02:38. > :02:40.in Brussels, we will do everything we can to help.

:02:41. > :02:45.He said there will be a meeting in Whitehall later this morning. We can

:02:46. > :02:59.go to our reporter Ben Wright who was outside Brussels airport. What

:03:00. > :03:04.is the latest? There are reports that 30 people have been killed.

:03:05. > :03:08.They also say they think at the airport there was one suicide bomber

:03:09. > :03:11.and one explosive device. We certainly know from eyewitness

:03:12. > :03:15.accounts that there were two explosions. I heard from an

:03:16. > :03:19.eyewitness that there was one explosion at the check-in desk of

:03:20. > :03:28.American Airlines, second at the star Buck -- Starbucks coffee shop.

:03:29. > :03:34.They are reporting that one was a suicide bomber and one was an

:03:35. > :03:38.explosive device. There were reports of shouting in Arabic prior to

:03:39. > :03:43.gunshots being fired and the explosions. What are you hearing?

:03:44. > :03:47.The same eyewitness reports, I have not confirmed there myself, but that

:03:48. > :03:57.would seem to be what happened. Everyone here thinks this was a

:03:58. > :04:00.terrorist attack. It has also been done in coordination with an attack

:04:01. > :04:06.at either the Maelbeek or Schuman Metro stations. This is the main

:04:07. > :04:10.International Airport here in Brussels. The explosions happened at

:04:11. > :04:15.eight o'clock. It was very busy. Commuters heading around to Europe

:04:16. > :04:19.and some flights to the US but it is mainly an airport which serves

:04:20. > :04:23.Europe. It would have been packed with commuters. The latest we are

:04:24. > :04:27.hearing is that 13 people have been killed. It seems to be a

:04:28. > :04:34.co-ordinated attack with the centre of Brussels as well at the same sort

:04:35. > :04:37.of time. This comes days after Salah Abdeslam, one of the people involved

:04:38. > :04:45.in the Paris attacks was finally arrested after a four-month hunt. He

:04:46. > :04:53.was found in the Molenbeek area which was a centre of radicalised

:04:54. > :04:57.people. Brussels has been on high alert. There has been a very visible

:04:58. > :05:02.police presence at Metro stations and on the streets. It has been

:05:03. > :05:08.non-baiters of alert since the Paris attacks, preparing for something

:05:09. > :05:12.exactly like this to happen -- it has been on a state of high alert.

:05:13. > :05:19.There are lots of people walking past with their suitcases, wondering

:05:20. > :05:23.what has happened. We saw some buses coming from the airport in blankets

:05:24. > :05:28.and aluminium jackets. Some with blood on their faces and some

:05:29. > :05:33.crying. Medical personnel were on buses taking them back to the centre

:05:34. > :05:36.of the city we think. This is clearly an ongoing emergency

:05:37. > :05:40.situation as they try and bring people who were injured out of the

:05:41. > :05:46.airport which was evacuated very quickly after these explosions went

:05:47. > :05:49.off. We are getting reports from eyewitnesses describing the scenes

:05:50. > :05:54.in the airport as being like a war zone. One person who arrived on a

:05:55. > :06:08.flight from Geneva before the blast said it was atrocious, the

:06:09. > :06:11.ceilings collapsed, there was blood everywhere, injured people and bags

:06:12. > :06:13.everywhere, we were walking in the debris.

:06:14. > :06:15.It was a war scene. Another eyewitness, who was seen wiping

:06:16. > :06:21.blood from his face said the Metro was leading the macro leaving --

:06:22. > :06:28.leaving Maelbeek station. Looking at the pictures of the aftermath of the

:06:29. > :06:32.airport, with debris all over the ground, large windows blown out and

:06:33. > :06:39.shattered, it looks like they were pretty large explosions? Yes, that

:06:40. > :06:44.is what one of the people at the airport told me a few minutes ago.

:06:45. > :06:48.This airport has huge glass frontages. If there was an explosion

:06:49. > :06:56.of the size we were hearing about, but would have sent glass from those

:06:57. > :07:00.windows shattering across the whole of the departure area and causing

:07:01. > :07:04.injury to many, many people. I imagine that is one of the

:07:05. > :07:07.consequences of this, the emergency services and paramedics are having

:07:08. > :07:13.to deal with now, as well as fatalities we are hearing about. We

:07:14. > :07:16.are hearing from the Flemish national broadcaster that 13 people

:07:17. > :07:22.have been killed. We await confirmation of how many people have

:07:23. > :07:26.died. From behind me there is a constant stream of emergency

:07:27. > :07:32.vehicles and sirens now going back to the city. I saw ten ambulances

:07:33. > :07:38.come up this road behind me so a huge emergency operation underway.

:07:39. > :07:43.Thank you. Let's take a look at some of the latest pictures that we are

:07:44. > :07:49.getting, images of some of those who have been injured in the explosions

:07:50. > :07:57.at the airport. That is one of the first images which came through of a

:07:58. > :08:00.man lying injured. Two women sitting injured, looking completely

:08:01. > :08:05.bewildered, covered in dust. And as people walked away from the

:08:06. > :08:10.terminal, some of them covered in blood, just in the immediate

:08:11. > :08:18.aftermath of those two explosions. One caused by a suicide bomber, the

:08:19. > :08:24.second explosion, another explosive device. The latest report is that 13

:08:25. > :08:28.people killed in the explosions at the airport, that figure not

:08:29. > :08:36.confirmed but those are the reports, many of the injured. -- many others

:08:37. > :08:40.injured. We are hearing that Gatwick Airport is stepping up security.

:08:41. > :08:48.David Cameron, the Prime Minister, is preparing to hold an emergency

:08:49. > :08:51.meeting on the attacks. A spokesman for Brussels said they have

:08:52. > :08:58.increased their security presence and the trolls around the airport.

:08:59. > :09:10.We can go to Ian McCafferty who was at the Maelbeek station. I was at a

:09:11. > :09:17.metro station nearby when the explosion went off at Maelbeek. We

:09:18. > :09:27.felt it there. What did you see and hear, what were you aware of? It was

:09:28. > :09:32.allowed, muffled thud. It was clearly audible. There is so much

:09:33. > :09:41.construction going on so it is hard to discern one noise from another.

:09:42. > :09:47.Soldiers who are pretty much always on hand around this area were very

:09:48. > :09:51.quick to evacuate the building. That is when people started running from

:09:52. > :09:57.the scene and there were a lot of people crying. There was a lot of

:09:58. > :10:02.confusion. Just explain how far away you were from the explosion. You

:10:03. > :10:09.were at a different Metro station from Maelbeek but you saw dust and

:10:10. > :10:14.smoke very quickly? The initial shock of the explosion would have

:10:15. > :10:19.left a lot of dust all the way through the tunnels, and it was once

:10:20. > :10:25.we were evacuated from the building, we saw more people out on the

:10:26. > :10:34.street. It is just the sense of confusion. The Metro station is only

:10:35. > :10:39.a stones throw away from Maelbeek so if we look down the road we can see

:10:40. > :10:43.all of the people being evacuated. I have a colleague down there who is

:10:44. > :10:48.watching things and she is seeing a lot of injured people and they were

:10:49. > :10:52.being looked after as well. At the moment, there is still a certain

:10:53. > :10:57.amount of confusion about what is going on and everyone is checking in

:10:58. > :11:02.to make sure everyone is OK. This was rush hour so the stations would

:11:03. > :11:07.have been busy. What was it like as people were trying to leave?

:11:08. > :11:15.Initially, there was a clear sense of panic, but there was nobody

:11:16. > :11:18.running at first. Like I said, you second-guess these things, this sort

:11:19. > :11:22.of situation, but you don't really know what is going on. You start

:11:23. > :11:31.running straightaway. It is not necessary either, but there was, the

:11:32. > :11:35.Metro station was packed. Like you say, rush-hour, morning time.

:11:36. > :11:43.Whatever this was was obviously planned for this time. There is a

:11:44. > :11:47.general sense of confusion. A lot of people out on the streets. The

:11:48. > :11:52.soldiers were buried quick to try and disperse the crowds. I think at

:11:53. > :11:57.the moment, like I said, it is just a general consternation that people

:11:58. > :12:00.are not entirely sure of what is happening, and we are still trying

:12:01. > :12:08.to get as much information as we can, even on the ground here. What

:12:09. > :12:10.are you doing now? The Brussels transport authority is saying all

:12:11. > :12:26.public transport in Brussels is closed. I am in my office at the

:12:27. > :12:29.moment. My stop, I had just got off the Metro when the explosion took

:12:30. > :12:33.place and I was only around the corner from my office so we have

:12:34. > :12:40.been asked to stay indoors for now. A colleague of mine is kind of stuck

:12:41. > :12:46.somewhere else in the area because she cannot walk along the street

:12:47. > :12:52.now. We have been advised to stick in here, to stay indoors for now. To

:12:53. > :12:57.be honest, we are kind of used to this. How would you feel being in

:12:58. > :13:04.the city with the terror alert raised to its maximum level, and

:13:05. > :13:09.these events unfolding? In the moment, it is going to be a bit

:13:10. > :13:15.concerning. In general though, this is not something which permeates

:13:16. > :13:21.into my personal life all that often. We just tried to get on with

:13:22. > :13:25.our lives. After what happened in November, we have a strong security

:13:26. > :13:29.presence here all the time so as much as possible, people just get on

:13:30. > :13:35.with their lives. This is the height of things right now. There will be a

:13:36. > :13:40.certain degree of consternation, a certain degree of worry. There are a

:13:41. > :13:46.lot of people around the world, families saying are you OK, that

:13:47. > :13:49.will be an added element of pressure there. Are you able to see what is

:13:50. > :13:57.going on in the streets outside where you are now? Not where I am

:13:58. > :14:03.right now, but yes, we can look out of the windows and see. There is a

:14:04. > :14:12.long road which pretty much connects the Brussels city centre to the

:14:13. > :14:15.European Court, the European Parliament, the European Commission

:14:16. > :14:19.and European Council. This is the stretch of road that a lot of people

:14:20. > :14:24.are walking back along, walking away from Maelbeek station. I think all

:14:25. > :14:30.of the Metro stations here have been evacuated. There are a lot of people

:14:31. > :14:35.out on the road. How did you get the information that you must stay where

:14:36. > :14:39.you were, how is information being put out? Various different news

:14:40. > :14:44.outlets. I am also contracted to work with the European Commission,

:14:45. > :14:48.so we have our own messaging service will stop it comes from the European

:14:49. > :14:53.Commission security services who advised that we stay indoors and we

:14:54. > :14:57.have our own network. It is just a message from a boss or a colleague

:14:58. > :15:00.saying this, that and the other. Obviously, getting a lot of

:15:01. > :15:04.information from Twitter as well and a lot of people getting in touch

:15:05. > :15:10.online, either to say I hope everything is OK, or to say, this is

:15:11. > :15:18.what is going on. Ian, stay safe, thank you for joining us.

:15:19. > :15:20.Just to bring you some new information coming to us, we hear

:15:21. > :15:22.the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London is advising British

:15:23. > :15:26.nationals to avoid crowded areas and to follow the advice of the Belgian

:15:27. > :15:28.authorities. And the advice from the Belgian crisis Centre is people

:15:29. > :15:37.should stay where they are. You rust are saying no trains

:15:38. > :15:44.running to or from Brussels station. -- Eurostar. They were reported to

:15:45. > :15:46.be running earlier, but we are now hearing that no trains will run to

:15:47. > :15:53.or from Brussels station. Let's bring you up to date with all

:15:54. > :15:58.of the main developments if you are just joining us live from Brussels,

:15:59. > :16:04.there have been a series of bomb explosions just after 8am local

:16:05. > :16:08.time, two blasts in the departure area of the Zaventem airport,

:16:09. > :16:13.followed an hour later by a third blast on the Metro near the Maelbeek

:16:14. > :16:16.station in the city centre. The Belgian federal prosecutor says at

:16:17. > :16:22.least 35 are dead, with up to 35 injured. Minutes after the first

:16:23. > :16:26.blast, people were seen running away from the air or terminal building,

:16:27. > :16:31.at least one blast is thought to be the work of a suicide bomber. Also

:16:32. > :16:36.reports of somebody shouting in Arabic before shots were heard. The

:16:37. > :16:40.airport has been evacuated, it is closed until further notice. All

:16:41. > :16:43.flights from Brussels have been cancelled and planes heading

:16:44. > :16:49.there have been diverted. Rail travel to the airport has been

:16:50. > :16:55.suspended. Tel Jim has raised security to maximum level across the

:16:56. > :17:03.country. -- Belgium. To correct the casualties figures, the fears of 13

:17:04. > :17:05.dead, not 30, but this unfolding situation means we are getting

:17:06. > :17:12.reports all the time, and the number of confirmed dead still one but

:17:13. > :17:18.there are reports that possibly 13 have been killed and many more

:17:19. > :17:22.injured, some of them severely, at the explosions at Brussels airport

:17:23. > :17:27.and the further explosion at the Metro station in the centre of

:17:28. > :17:33.Brussels. Other explosions at other stations, there have been reports,

:17:34. > :17:38.but we have had an eyewitness report adjacent to Maelbeek, he heard the

:17:39. > :17:41.explosion there and the smoke travelled quickly along the tunnel,

:17:42. > :17:47.which is possibly why there have been reports of attacks at other

:17:48. > :17:52.adjacent stations. We are staying across those attacks, we will bring

:17:53. > :17:56.new information as we get it. The blasts in Brussels, four days after

:17:57. > :18:01.the capture in the city of the suspect who investigators say was

:18:02. > :18:04.one of the men behind the Paris attacks in November. The Belgian

:18:05. > :18:08.Foreign Minister warned the discovery of a cache of weapons

:18:09. > :18:13.suggested his accomplices could be ready to carry out further attacks.

:18:14. > :18:17.French police say the Paris attacks were largely planned in Brussels by

:18:18. > :18:24.conspirators linked to so-called Islamic State. David Cameron will be

:18:25. > :18:28.chairing a meeting of the Government's emergency committee in

:18:29. > :18:33.response to the attacks. He has said he is shocked and concerned by the

:18:34. > :18:36.events in the Belgian capital. The Foreign Office has updated its

:18:37. > :18:40.advice to British nationals in Brussels, it is urging people to

:18:41. > :18:52.avoid crowded areas and follow the advice of Belgian authorities. Let's

:18:53. > :19:00.go to Brussels airport. Thank you for joining us, what is the

:19:01. > :19:03.situation now? I was in terminal eight, four flights to Europe, it

:19:04. > :19:08.was very busy. I did not see or hear the explosion come because it was on

:19:09. > :19:14.the other terminal, but it was very chaotic and confused, and not know

:19:15. > :19:18.what was going on. We were evacuated, we walked along the

:19:19. > :19:30.tarmac, we did not know what was going on. We were taken to a cargo

:19:31. > :19:34.area of the airport. There is a big warehouse, and everybody is standing

:19:35. > :19:40.around, waiting. Occasionally a fire engine will go past with siren song,

:19:41. > :19:44.but nobody knows what is happening, people huddling under blankets that

:19:45. > :19:48.have been handed out, other people handing out water, but nobody knows

:19:49. > :19:52.what is going on. How much have you been able to see the impact of those

:19:53. > :19:58.explosions? Incredible pictures from inside the terminal, which show the

:19:59. > :20:01.damage caused by the explosion, and those huge glass windows chatters,

:20:02. > :20:08.all indicating these were large explosions. It has been difficult to

:20:09. > :20:13.see anything, because I woke up and down, there are lots of windows, but

:20:14. > :20:19.I could not see anything, so it must have happened out of sight from

:20:20. > :20:26.where we were. They must have taken is for as possible away for safety

:20:27. > :20:35.reasons. I have to assume they have taken us as for away as possible.

:20:36. > :20:38.Stay with us, I want to bring in a reporter who witnessed the aftermath

:20:39. > :20:44.of the bomb at the Maelbeek Metro station. Tell us what you saw and

:20:45. > :20:50.heard. I was outside the Maelbeek station, there were a dozen, 15

:20:51. > :20:56.people on the ground outside, covered in white sheets, they seemed

:20:57. > :21:00.to be injured, I did not see anybody dead, but I was on the outside of

:21:01. > :21:04.the station, looking at the scene. There were people milling around,

:21:05. > :21:08.the ambulances and fire trucks were having difficulty getting through,

:21:09. > :21:12.because Maelbeek is on a one-way street, and it was blocked at the

:21:13. > :21:18.time, very difficult for people to get around the actual scene. There

:21:19. > :21:23.were some police on the scene who were tending to the wounded, but it

:21:24. > :21:29.seemed like there were no ambulances at that point. As we talk to you, we

:21:30. > :21:35.can see pictures from inside the tunnel, people walking along, very

:21:36. > :21:39.smoky. We both speaking to somebody who was in an adjacent Metro station

:21:40. > :21:42.when the explosion happened, they heard it and the smoke travelled

:21:43. > :21:46.quickly down the tunnel. Does that explain the confusion as to why

:21:47. > :21:50.there may have been explosions at other Metro stations, or does it

:21:51. > :21:57.seem like there has been more than one attack? We can only confirm the

:21:58. > :22:01.attack on Maelbeek, we have reporters on the ground at another

:22:02. > :22:05.station where there were reports of an attack, they did not see any sign

:22:06. > :22:10.of an attack, it seemed that was a false alarm. As far as I can tell,

:22:11. > :22:13.this was a case of the smoke and sound travelling through the

:22:14. > :22:17.tunnels, but there are no open formations at this point. We have

:22:18. > :22:29.reporters at stations surrounding. At all those stations, there are no

:22:30. > :22:31.confirmed reports of bombs. What are the reports on where the explosion

:22:32. > :22:36.was apparently detonated? Was that under the ground

:22:37. > :22:43.or closer to the entrance of the station? It was not on the ground

:22:44. > :22:46.level at the top of the station. I could not see any damage on the

:22:47. > :22:50.outside of the station from both sides of the street. It seems like

:22:51. > :22:55.it was probably down within the station itself, but we don't know

:22:56. > :23:00.exactly whether it was on the platform or further up. We are just

:23:01. > :23:09.getting a report, nobody killed in the explosion inside Brussels Metro

:23:10. > :23:14.carriage. The first report of casualties or not in the Metro

:23:15. > :23:20.station, but it also indicates the explosion happened inside the Metro

:23:21. > :23:24.carriage. This was rush hour. It was a bit after rush hour, after 9am, so

:23:25. > :23:30.there would have been many people in the Metro, but it was a case of

:23:31. > :23:36.people getting lucky this time. Once people heard about the Brussels

:23:37. > :23:39.airport attacks, there was a general feeling that people should not take

:23:40. > :23:44.the Metro, certainly within my office. We were talking about not

:23:45. > :23:50.being on the Metro, because it was too dangerous. That would have

:23:51. > :23:53.helped matters, because people were naturally cautious to go underground

:23:54. > :24:00.after the attacks. What is the situation now? People are being told

:24:01. > :24:03.to stay where they are, and the transport network is effectively

:24:04. > :24:09.shut down. Yes, the trams and Metro are shut. They were progressively

:24:10. > :24:13.shutting it down, it is incredible that they did not do it immediately

:24:14. > :24:18.after the attacks at the airport, but nonetheless everything is being

:24:19. > :24:27.shut down. Are there many people on the street? My office faces the

:24:28. > :24:32.street, there are some people on the streets, there were many on the

:24:33. > :24:38.streets when I was down at Maelbeek at 9:15am, 9:30am. Now it seems like

:24:39. > :24:45.there are lots more emergency services, people are trying to get

:24:46. > :24:49.people to stay put. The reports talk of what seems to have been a pretty

:24:50. > :24:56.calm reaction by people to these explosions as they were unfolding.

:24:57. > :25:01.Does that describe how you saw it? I found it quite incredible, because

:25:02. > :25:06.as I was running to Maelbeek, I passed lots of people, they did not

:25:07. > :25:11.know something was going on. There was an audible police presence, but

:25:12. > :25:19.people are now so used to silence, it just seemed like another day. --

:25:20. > :25:25.sirens. You could smell the explosion, people would have heard

:25:26. > :25:29.it. But they seemed to be quite happy to be milling around, around

:25:30. > :25:31.20 to 30 metres down the road from where the blast had happened. Thank

:25:32. > :25:45.you. Details coming through all the time,

:25:46. > :25:50.bring us up to date. At the start of this morning, the main International

:25:51. > :25:53.Airport in Brussels, one, possibly to explosions there, we know 13

:25:54. > :25:58.people have been killed, and many more injured quite a large blast,

:25:59. > :26:04.judging by the pictures. Very soon after, another explosion at the

:26:05. > :26:09.Maelbeek Metro station, I know it well, it is about 500 metres from

:26:10. > :26:14.the council building and the European Commission. They are an

:26:15. > :26:20.hour ahead of us, it would have been rush hour, people trying to get into

:26:21. > :26:25.work into the EU building. Very busy at that time. We are hearing from

:26:26. > :26:30.one of the Brussels channels that ten people may have been killed at

:26:31. > :26:33.that station, so 23 possibly killed so far, but that will be a death

:26:34. > :26:39.toll that may change through the day. Looking at the pictures, people

:26:40. > :26:41.will recognise some of them, because they are familiar to those who will

:26:42. > :26:48.have watched 7th of July and how that unfolded, people not knowing

:26:49. > :26:54.where to go, some deciding to walk home, the emergency services not

:26:55. > :26:58.knowing where to go, occurs multiple reports are coming in, you get

:26:59. > :27:03.echoes of explosions, so they go to wrong places, and they have multiple

:27:04. > :27:07.sites for explosions, so trying to send the right people to the right

:27:08. > :27:12.places proved difficult. But the modus operandi very familiar now, to

:27:13. > :27:19.try and divide the emergency services to create as much confusion

:27:20. > :27:25.and fear in the city, and a very big job for the Brussels authorities.

:27:26. > :27:29.This is a city in lockdown. Yes, but this is not the time for

:27:30. > :27:32.recriminations, but there will be questions about why it was not

:27:33. > :27:37.already at the highest level of security, because there was a review

:27:38. > :27:44.for the raid on the apartment, and it became clear pretty quickly that

:27:45. > :27:56.there were other people that we did not know about who had and is in the

:27:57. > :28:00.flag, a huge cache of arms, and a man who they were not really looking

:28:01. > :28:04.for, who worked in a factory in Brussels who had gone to Syria, he

:28:05. > :28:10.came back, he had been in the country a matter of months, and was

:28:11. > :28:14.prepared to die, because he stayed behind and had this confrontation

:28:15. > :28:17.with police. From that, it has been a fast-moving story, the Prime

:28:18. > :28:22.Minister called a Security Council meeting on Tuesday, they reviewed

:28:23. > :28:28.the security situation, they decided to keep it one below the highest

:28:29. > :28:32.level. In November, after the Paris attacks, it was at the highest

:28:33. > :28:37.level, all of these Metro stations were closed down, the Central

:28:38. > :28:40.Station, colleges, schools, universities, the city was in

:28:41. > :28:44.lockdown while they got on top of it. But while it is not time for

:28:45. > :28:49.recriminations, there will be questions about the Belgian police

:28:50. > :28:55.and the operation to track down some of the members of this cell. What

:28:56. > :28:58.are you hearing via the news agencies about what is going on at

:28:59. > :29:04.other airports? Because security is being stepped up, Gatwick Airport in

:29:05. > :29:10.London... The European authorities are reviewing their security, David

:29:11. > :29:15.Cameron is calling a meeting of the emergency committee, Eurostar

:29:16. > :29:19.terminal 's close down, I think the train from Paris to Brussels is

:29:20. > :29:24.being closed down, everything coming into the station, which is difficult

:29:25. > :29:29.to police, because it has multiple entrances. But I would think they

:29:30. > :29:34.would shut that station down almost immediately. Lots of people stuck on

:29:35. > :29:39.trains heading to Brussels at the moment. I would suspect in Berlin,

:29:40. > :29:44.Paris, London, everybody working quickly to ascertain what they can.

:29:45. > :29:49.In these situations, they want to close borders, because we know how

:29:50. > :29:53.quickly people flee the scene, we saw that after the Paris attacks.

:29:54. > :29:57.There will be tightened security at the borders heading out of Brussels

:29:58. > :30:01.and towards France and Germany. For people just joining us, bring us up

:30:02. > :30:05.to date on the latest of the casualties figures. Multiple

:30:06. > :30:12.explosions at. At least one explosion, I am loathe to call it

:30:13. > :30:18.two, because we do not know, but certainly one in the International

:30:19. > :30:22.Airport this morning, reports that shots were fired, exchanges in

:30:23. > :30:26.Arabic were heard, reports of perhaps a suicide bomber in the

:30:27. > :30:30.International Airport, and quickly after, we had a report from the

:30:31. > :30:35.Maelbeek Metro station, 500 metres from the European Commission

:30:36. > :30:40.building, down the road from the council building, very busy at rush

:30:41. > :30:47.hour, we hear that 13 of thought to have been killed so far at the

:30:48. > :30:51.airport in Russells and another ten at the Maelbeek station, which would

:30:52. > :30:53.make 23, but very early days. The death toll rises through the day. We

:30:54. > :31:08.will have to keep an eye on that. Our Brussels correspondent Ben

:31:09. > :31:12.Wright is at the airport. He spoke to an eyewitness when the explosions

:31:13. > :31:18.happened this morning. Everyone was running the same way because the

:31:19. > :31:23.explosion was that the left side so everyone was running the other side.

:31:24. > :31:28.One explosion was on one side of the building and then there was another

:31:29. > :31:33.explosion? How close were they? Very close. The first one was at the

:31:34. > :31:41.American Airlines desk. The second explosion was nearby the Starbucks

:31:42. > :31:55.coffee shop. It was like, I don't know... It was like 100 metres from

:31:56. > :32:03.each other. Was one of them nearer the entrance? Yes. So if people were

:32:04. > :32:07.running from the first, they were running in the direction of the

:32:08. > :32:11.second? Is that is what you think may have happened? Yes. That is the

:32:12. > :32:17.order they went off, the two explosions?

:32:18. > :32:22.Yes. Let's bring in our security correspondent Frank Gardner in the

:32:23. > :32:28.studio. There were concerns about an attack after the arrest of Salah

:32:29. > :32:32.Abdeslam? Yes, I don't think anyone will be particularly surprised that

:32:33. > :32:36.an attack has taken place. Really, ever since the Charlie Hebdo attacks

:32:37. > :32:41.in Paris, way back in January last year, more than a year ago, there

:32:42. > :32:46.has clearly been a number of cells on the loose, inspired by or

:32:47. > :32:51.directed by so-called Islamic State with access to weapons and

:32:52. > :32:56.explosives. The French and Belgian authorities, while working much

:32:57. > :33:00.better now through a joint investigation system they do, they

:33:01. > :33:03.have been playing catch up. They have not had a very good system of

:33:04. > :33:10.sharing intelligence between them, and the Belgians in particular, have

:33:11. > :33:13.been very remiss at getting their intelligence agencies to share

:33:14. > :33:19.information with police. The police are often thrashing around in the

:33:20. > :33:23.dark, and in some cases, depending on links with the British police, to

:33:24. > :33:26.hear what their own intelligence agencies are thinking, which is

:33:27. > :33:33.pretty shocking. They are where we were in Britain about 15 years ago,

:33:34. > :33:35.in terms of coordinating police, security and intelligence

:33:36. > :33:40.information. Coupled with that, you have got the fact there is no

:33:41. > :33:46.comparison there for the sort of community policing which is being

:33:47. > :33:50.done in Britain. British communities, particularly Muslim

:33:51. > :33:53.communities, have been very good at reporting suspicious behaviour. A

:33:54. > :33:57.lot of plots have been stopped because of good citizenship. That

:33:58. > :34:05.has not happened in Belgium. There are very bad community relations

:34:06. > :34:13.between the police and communities in Belgium, particularly the area

:34:14. > :34:16.where Salah Abdeslam was able to go to ground for four macro months,

:34:17. > :34:20.right under the noses of the authorities, because they do not

:34:21. > :34:24.have a grip on what is happening in the area. We can see pictures of the

:34:25. > :34:29.aftermath of the attack at the airport. We can see some of the

:34:30. > :34:38.people injured in the explosions. Quite graphic images. These are

:34:39. > :34:43.injuries which were caused by that explosion. These pictures emerged

:34:44. > :34:48.quite quickly after the explosion, people looking shocked, covered in

:34:49. > :34:52.dust. Descriptions of the ceiling in the departures area of the airport

:34:53. > :34:59.caving in and blood everywhere after the two explosions in the departures

:35:00. > :35:05.hall. People walking away in the immediate aftermath of those

:35:06. > :35:11.explosions. Frank, Russell being the focus of that terrorist activity,

:35:12. > :35:17.you mentioned Molenbeek, tell us more about that area -- Brussels

:35:18. > :35:22.being the focus. It is an area of very high proportion of unemployment

:35:23. > :35:26.and people whose families originally came from Rocco. They were brought

:35:27. > :35:32.in from cheap Labour essentially, but when that Labour dried up,

:35:33. > :35:36.unemployment rose. Large families, a lot of distrust of central

:35:37. > :35:40.authority, no feeling of real belonging. Belgium is an odd country

:35:41. > :35:46.in the sense anyhow, that you have Flemish people and the Wellens.

:35:47. > :35:53.French speaking people in the South, and the Flemish speaking people in

:35:54. > :36:00.the north. There are 16 different agencies. It is quite a mixed place.

:36:01. > :36:05.For a long time, Molenbeek has allowed to essentially been

:36:06. > :36:09.segregated from much of the country and the rest of the capital. It is

:36:10. > :36:14.only about 15 minutes from the central Brussels. It is not a no-go

:36:15. > :36:18.area, but it is an area where police are not welcome. It is an area where

:36:19. > :36:21.Salah Abdeslam and other ices operatives were able to come in and

:36:22. > :36:26.out of pretty much at will. It is also the place where sadly,

:36:27. > :36:31.radicalisation can happen very quickly, where people say oh, he was

:36:32. > :36:36.such a nice guy, he used to come in and have a drink, I cannot believe

:36:37. > :36:44.it was him. Six weeks later he was popping up in rack and Syria or he

:36:45. > :36:48.is on a wanted list. -- Raqqa. Belgium has got a lot of

:36:49. > :36:54.soul-searching to do. Way back before 9/11, Al-Qaeda, remember

:36:55. > :37:02.them? Al-Qaeda said two Belgian passport holders of Moroccan origin

:37:03. > :37:08.to Afghanistan to assassinate the man to take over Afghanistan if he

:37:09. > :37:12.had not been killed, quite possibly. They posed as Belgian TV journalists

:37:13. > :37:17.and they had a bomb inside their camera. They set up the tripod in

:37:18. > :37:21.his safe place in Afghanistan and they said Wright, we are ready to

:37:22. > :37:26.start filming, and blew him and themselves up.

:37:27. > :37:31.We have just heard from the Belgian prosecutor that the explosion in

:37:32. > :37:35.Brussels was a suicide attack. I am not sure whether that refers to the

:37:36. > :37:43.airport explosion or the Metro explosion. The Belgian prosecutor

:37:44. > :37:57.confirming that it was a suicide attack. And not the first suicide

:37:58. > :38:02.attack on the streets of Europe? No, we had Madrid and the London

:38:03. > :38:08.bombings. Way back in 1985, there were groups, nothing to do with

:38:09. > :38:13.modern day jihadis, I think it was Palestinian extremists who attacked

:38:14. > :38:17.Rome and Vienna airports. More recently, Glasgow airport comedy

:38:18. > :38:25.remember roughly in 2008, some people linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq

:38:26. > :38:30.round a jeep into Glasgow airport, hoping to detonate a fuel air

:38:31. > :38:37.explosion, it did not work. The guy was on fire and I think he died

:38:38. > :38:42.after that. The fact is, there are cells in continental Europe with

:38:43. > :38:48.access to weapons and explosives. They have almost certainly planned

:38:49. > :38:54.this some time ago but brought forward their planning after the

:38:55. > :38:59.capture of Salah Abdeslam last week. So much security in airports but our

:39:00. > :39:07.departure area is a soft target? They have CCTV. The array 's do this

:39:08. > :39:15.very subtly. -- the Israelis. There is not much visible security but

:39:16. > :39:20.that backpacker has an area place -- that backpacker has an earpiece and

:39:21. > :39:23.he is peering into the bins to see what someone has discarded. There

:39:24. > :39:28.are a lot of people watching. Similar things happen at British

:39:29. > :39:32.airports but not to the same extent. Some people would say that is a bit

:39:33. > :39:42.of an Achilles heel. Frank, thank you. We can go live to Westminster.

:39:43. > :39:48.Norman Smith is at Westminster where the Cabinet will be meeting for a

:39:49. > :39:50.Cobra meeting. The Prime Minister will move here

:39:51. > :40:01.from the Cabinet meeting in down Street just around the corner, --

:40:02. > :40:04.Downing Street. He will bring with him the Home Secretary and the

:40:05. > :40:09.Defence Secretary. They will try and pull together all the information

:40:10. > :40:20.about what is happening in Brussels. There will be two purposes. One is

:40:21. > :40:23.to bring in the information from Brussels, the second is to reassure

:40:24. > :40:28.people in Britain, in terms of the transport network, with transport to

:40:29. > :40:34.the airport and a threat to the underground. I should say, the

:40:35. > :40:38.security services here have conducted a number of trial runs of

:40:39. > :40:47.possible attacks on the Underground. We had one back in June at the old

:40:48. > :40:54.Aldwych station just up the road, similar to an attack and then in

:40:55. > :40:58.December they see related a role in attack on an office block. The

:40:59. > :41:02.security services here have prepared for this sort of eventuality, but at

:41:03. > :41:08.the end of the day, there is probably nothing the security

:41:09. > :41:13.services can absolutely do to avoid the sort of attacks. It comes down

:41:14. > :41:17.to intelligence gathering and the public as well, to people being

:41:18. > :41:23.aware and being alert, and keeping their eyes open. I'm sure that will

:41:24. > :41:26.be part of the message we hear after the Cobra meeting, and appealed for

:41:27. > :41:33.people to be vigilant and beyond their guard. At the same time, we

:41:34. > :41:39.will no doubt see a marked increase in security, in London, a much

:41:40. > :41:43.higher visible presence, to offer a degree of reassurance. In terms of

:41:44. > :41:46.security services in different countries working together in the

:41:47. > :41:57.aftermath of this, is that something that will also be discussed there?

:41:58. > :42:02.Absolutely. We have a degree tragically, of experience of this

:42:03. > :42:09.with the 77 London bombings, the attacks on the Underground, so we

:42:10. > :42:15.have some knowledge of the situation now facing the authorities in

:42:16. > :42:20.Brussels and that information will be passed over. I expect we will

:42:21. > :42:24.inevitably see tighter control at airports and ports, in terms of who

:42:25. > :42:27.is coming into the country and who is going out of the country, and we

:42:28. > :42:33.will offer what sort of medical support might be needed. Specialist

:42:34. > :42:38.medical support might be needed. Above all, intelligence advice which

:42:39. > :42:47.might assist the authorities in Brussels. The core, I suspect, of

:42:48. > :42:51.the Prime Minister's message today will be to try and reassure people

:42:52. > :42:57.here that everything that can be done is being done, and that we do

:42:58. > :43:01.have in place pretty rigorous security procedures, but with an

:43:02. > :43:07.appeal for people to be alert, to be vigilant, and to be on their guard.

:43:08. > :43:11.Thank you, Norman. In Brussels, people are being told

:43:12. > :43:15.to stay where they are in the aftermath of those explosions. All

:43:16. > :43:20.public transport in Brussels has closed. Let's bring in Christian

:43:21. > :43:24.Fraser. I'm seeing the latest pictures from inside the airport in

:43:25. > :43:29.the aftermath of this bomb and there are a lot of flames and an awful lot

:43:30. > :43:32.of damage. 13 killed I think would be conservative estimate at the

:43:33. > :43:37.moment, although that is what we are hearing from the Belgian

:43:38. > :43:40.authorities. Also from the American Airlines desk. There was a flight

:43:41. > :43:43.due to go out from the International Airport this morning which has been

:43:44. > :43:47.cancelled, but presumably, there would have been a lot of Americans

:43:48. > :43:54.in and around that area at that time. The other explosion at the

:43:55. > :43:59.Maelbeek station near the European Council building. People standing in

:44:00. > :44:05.adjacent stations down the line and the explosion so there was confusion

:44:06. > :44:09.for a time about maybe there had been multiple explosions but

:44:10. > :44:17.significant to kill ten people at that station. Confusion in Brussels.

:44:18. > :44:21.Emergency services flying around the city. Colleagues in the Brussels

:44:22. > :44:28.office say you can hear sirens all around the city. A lot of confusion,

:44:29. > :44:34.as it was here after the 7/7 attacks. You can see people walking

:44:35. > :44:39.home, not knowing whether to stay in their offices, people trying to call

:44:40. > :44:45.loved ones to find out where they are. Phone signals are blocked. All

:44:46. > :44:49.the international connections have seized. We are hearing that the

:44:50. > :44:55.connection from Paris to Brussels, they have been told to get off the

:44:56. > :44:58.train. Eurostar has stopped and all flights into Brussels has stopped

:44:59. > :45:04.until six o'clock tomorrow morning. Brussels in a state of virtual

:45:05. > :45:14.lockdown at the minute. And there were fears there may be an attack?

:45:15. > :45:17.The Security Council met in Brussels on Tuesday but they decided to keep

:45:18. > :45:20.it at three which was a low the highest level. Now security is at

:45:21. > :45:33.the highest level. Thank you. There have been two explosions at

:45:34. > :45:38.Brussels airport and a blast in the Metro, at least 13 have been killed

:45:39. > :45:42.in the capital and 35 injured. There was a huge explosion which

:45:43. > :45:47.shattered all the glass from the front of the airport.

:45:48. > :45:51.Belgian media say suicide attackers are responsible for the explosions.

:45:52. > :45:56.Russells is now on its highest level of terror alert, the airport has

:45:57. > :46:02.been evacuated and close, all flights are cancelled. The blasts

:46:03. > :46:06.hit the departure hall near the American Airlines check-in desk. We

:46:07. > :46:10.will bring you all of the details. As smoke poured from a Metro

:46:11. > :46:32.station, the entire network was shut down.

:46:33. > :46:39.Let's bring you up to date. There has been a series of bomb explosions

:46:40. > :46:44.in Brussels. A little after 8am local time there were two blasts in

:46:45. > :46:48.the departure area at the Belgian capital's Zaventem airport, followed

:46:49. > :46:53.an hour later by a third blast on the Metro close to the main EU

:46:54. > :46:59.buildings. It is feared at least 13 are dead with up to 35 injured. The

:47:00. > :47:04.Belgian authorities have referred to the explosions at the airport and

:47:05. > :47:08.Metro as terror attacks, the city is in lockdown. Video footage shows

:47:09. > :47:14.people running away from the scene and smoke rising from a terminal

:47:15. > :47:18.building. The blasts were close to the American Airlines desk. Chaotic

:47:19. > :47:22.scenes followed, the airport has been evacuated, and is closed. All

:47:23. > :47:26.flights from Brussels have been cancelled and planes heading there

:47:27. > :47:30.are being diverted. Rail travel to the airport has been suspended. I'll

:47:31. > :47:38.jump has raised security levels to maximum level for -- Belgium.

:47:39. > :47:43.Hundreds of people fled, one witness said they ran towards the second,

:47:44. > :47:53.larger blast when running away from the first explosion.

:47:54. > :48:07.You felt the explosion? Yes. There was glass over me.

:48:08. > :48:21.We saw some smashed windows. We did not get any information. Did you see

:48:22. > :48:25.or hear the explosion? No, but I walked through a lot of stuff,

:48:26. > :48:31.glass, metal, smoke, water dripping through the ceiling, we walked

:48:32. > :48:35.through puddles, we were evacuated. I was just waiting for my suitcase,

:48:36. > :48:44.and then somebody said, this is an evacuation. We were taken outside.

:48:45. > :48:47.That was what happened at the airport, and explosion also took

:48:48. > :48:53.place at a Metro station close to the EU institutions, injuring more

:48:54. > :48:58.than a dozen people. Shortly after those blasts rocked the city's

:48:59. > :49:00.airport. This local reporter was caught up in the chaos near Maelbeek

:49:01. > :49:06.station. I am in the Brussels European Court,

:49:07. > :49:12.right next to the European Commission, the scene here is

:49:13. > :49:17.extremely strange. There are ambulances everywhere, army trucks

:49:18. > :49:24.passed by, some areas have been cordoned off. The whole Brussels

:49:25. > :49:31.metro is now closed. I am right next to Maelbeek Metro. The press is not

:49:32. > :49:39.allowed nearby. There are a lot of ambulances. I am counting six or

:49:40. > :49:43.seven. We thinking there might be some people injured nobody is

:49:44. > :49:48.allowed in. The explosions come four days after

:49:49. > :49:51.the capture in the city of Salah Abdeslam, who investigators say was

:49:52. > :49:54.one of the men behind the Paris attacks last November. After his

:49:55. > :49:58.arrest the Belgian Foreign Minister warned the discovery of a cache of

:49:59. > :50:04.weapons suggested that his accomplices could be ready to carry

:50:05. > :50:08.out further attacks. Two people connected to Salah Abdeslam are

:50:09. > :50:12.still missing. French police say the attacks in Paris which killed 130

:50:13. > :50:18.people were largely planned in Brussels by conspirators linked to

:50:19. > :50:22.so-called Islamic State. In London David Cameron will chair a meeting

:50:23. > :50:25.of the emergency committee in response to the attacks in Brussels.

:50:26. > :50:33.He has said he is shocked and concerned by the events. On the line

:50:34. > :50:36.now, a Conservative MEP in the European Parliament building close

:50:37. > :50:41.to where the Metro station explosion took place. Did you see or hear

:50:42. > :50:46.anything? No, it was just around the corner, so we did not. But now there

:50:47. > :50:52.is big evidence of a lot of emergency service vehicles, police

:50:53. > :50:54.on the streets, guns, and streets being sealed off.

:50:55. > :51:04.Tell us more about what you can see around you. Very little, because you

:51:05. > :51:09.cannot get near to where it is will stop --. My office is not looking

:51:10. > :51:10.over the station, it is just around the corner.

:51:11. > :51:20.But there is a very high level of police and troops in the area now.

:51:21. > :51:26.As you have said earlier, the whole of Brussels is in lockdown, no

:51:27. > :51:32.public services, the Metro is cancelled, no buses, and so the city

:51:33. > :51:38.is a little traumatised. What is happening in the European Parliament

:51:39. > :51:42.building? I gather it is in lockdown, we cannot move in or out,

:51:43. > :51:46.people are going about their normal business, what a lot of meetings

:51:47. > :51:54.have had to be cancelled, because people cannot get in. I suspect we

:51:55. > :51:58.are waiting anxiously on events. The city is now on its highest state of

:51:59. > :52:05.alert, it had not been on that prior to these explosions. Hindsight is a

:52:06. > :52:09.wonderful thing, but you are bound to presume this is all to do with

:52:10. > :52:13.the arrest of a number of suspects from the Paris bombings. If so, one

:52:14. > :52:19.of the things which police did reveal is that the network or

:52:20. > :52:24.community supporting Islamic State here in Brussels is much bigger than

:52:25. > :52:30.we had presumed before. The ability to mount an operation like this with

:52:31. > :52:33.such speed. We were on a level three security, but with wisdom of

:52:34. > :52:39.hindsight you would wonder, knowing as we did for days ago what was

:52:40. > :52:45.going on, we could not have done more. But that is easily set now.

:52:46. > :52:52.What will be challenges be for the security services in Belgium? It is

:52:53. > :52:56.a challenge which all security services need to be aware of,

:52:57. > :53:04.because there clearly is a problem in Belgium, and the reach of that,

:53:05. > :53:08.thinking about the Paris bombings, the ability to reach into other

:53:09. > :53:13.capital cities is very great, and therefore quite obviously the

:53:14. > :53:18.European nations need to think in terms of all being in this together,

:53:19. > :53:24.sharing resources, and specifically in terms of intelligence, it is

:53:25. > :53:30.obvious that until now we have not been doing enough of that. In the UK

:53:31. > :53:34.we can take a certain about of confidence or comfort from the fact

:53:35. > :53:39.that we have been reasonably successful because we learned our

:53:40. > :53:45.lessons from the bombings on 7/7, but you can be never complacent. But

:53:46. > :53:49.there was not enough sharing of information between the Belgian and

:53:50. > :53:57.French authorities for the Paris attacks. We had to up our game,

:53:58. > :54:00.gathering and sharing intelligence. Let's go to our reporter outside

:54:01. > :54:10.Brussels airport. What is the latest? I am as near to the airport

:54:11. > :54:15.terminal as we can get. A lot of people coming down this path behind

:54:16. > :54:22.me from the airport. You can see them in the background. We have seen

:54:23. > :54:27.airport workers, people who work on the ground, baggage handlers, people

:54:28. > :54:32.working on the front desks, and lots of passengers, who have made it

:54:33. > :54:34.here, pulling their luggage, some of whom had already gone through

:54:35. > :54:39.departures on the other side, many were in the terminal when the

:54:40. > :54:44.explosions went off. Eyewitnesses say there were two explosions, the

:54:45. > :54:52.first one was smaller, and a much bigger second one, that had the

:54:53. > :54:58.light and flash and bank, and that is the one that brought all of the

:54:59. > :55:05.glass down, or a lot of it, and has caused the injuries and fatalities.

:55:06. > :55:09.There are unconfirmed reports about numbers. Local media report 13 dead

:55:10. > :55:14.at the airport. That is not confirmed by police, that is what

:55:15. > :55:19.Belgian national media are reporting. The explosions here seem

:55:20. > :55:26.to have happened almost simultaneously, there was an

:55:27. > :55:31.explosion at the Maelbeek mail -- Metro station. We are about seven or

:55:32. > :55:35.eight kilometres from the centre of the city, but there was an explosion

:55:36. > :55:42.on the Metro, right at the heart of the political area of Brussels, near

:55:43. > :55:45.the European Commission. Reports of injuries and fatalities, but numbers

:55:46. > :55:54.not confirmed. There is a slightly calmer atmosphere now. For the first

:55:55. > :55:57.hour, there was an expected melee of emergency services, huge numbers of

:55:58. > :56:03.ambulances and police, the roads were cordoned off. Now there are

:56:04. > :56:07.Anne Boleyn says, and small buses full of passengers, some of whom

:56:08. > :56:14.clearly have had injuries, being taken towards the city. I am joined

:56:15. > :56:20.by somebody now, you were at the airport? You are on the BBC. Tell

:56:21. > :56:27.me, what would you doing this morning? The explosion was at 8am

:56:28. > :56:34.local time, 7am in the UK. I was having my break, I was inside the

:56:35. > :56:39.building. We heard a loud bang, everything was shaking. We looked

:56:40. > :56:47.outside the window, there was smoke coming out of the departure hall.

:56:48. > :56:52.They are doing construction work, so we thought maybe something went

:56:53. > :56:57.wrong. But soon everything became clear that it was a terrorist

:56:58. > :57:05.explosion. Did you hear or see the explosions? I felt and heard them,

:57:06. > :57:09.our office is 50 or 60 metres from the departure hall where it was. Did

:57:10. > :57:19.you see the departure hall after the explosions? From the outside, we saw

:57:20. > :57:25.the windows were shattered. I did not go inside the hall. You did not

:57:26. > :57:30.get a sense of the casualties or number of people? I just heard there

:57:31. > :57:35.were 11 fatalities, but I think there will be way more, because 8am

:57:36. > :57:48.is rush hour. It was packed? For sure. The worst time. An immediate

:57:49. > :57:53.evacuation. The airport is only here, it has taken you a while. We

:57:54. > :58:00.had to stay outside on the tarmac for more than an hour will stop --.

:58:01. > :58:08.Waiting for instructions. Then we were in guided inside the hangar,

:58:09. > :58:16.and we had to walk here and wait for further instructions, and hopefully

:58:17. > :58:19.we can go home. You work in the airport, the security has always

:58:20. > :58:25.been very high, especially in the last few months will stop it

:58:26. > :58:28.happened in the departure hall. It is open to the public, everybody can

:58:29. > :58:36.go in and out. There were some military guys patrol and there, but

:58:37. > :58:41.everybody can walk in and out, so it is easy to do something like that.

:58:42. > :58:47.The security is when you want to enter... When you go towards the

:58:48. > :58:53.gates. Yes, there is all the security, passport control. But

:58:54. > :59:02.everybody can walk in and out the airport. It is open to the public.

:59:03. > :59:09.You are shocked's of course. A few months ago, there were some attacks

:59:10. > :59:13.that they prevented, everybody was afraid that something like this

:59:14. > :59:17.would happen. You could see it happen now. Two days ago they caught

:59:18. > :59:22.the guy that was responsible for the Paris attacks, I think this is a

:59:23. > :59:31.revenge attack. Thank you for talking to us. Another eyewitness

:59:32. > :59:37.from the scene, trying to work out where he goes next. There are lots

:59:38. > :59:43.of shaken people, it has gone quiet for the moment, but the evacuation

:59:44. > :59:48.seems to have been wrapped up, people are out of the airport, and

:59:49. > :59:53.the injured have been taken away. Thank you very much. That is the

:59:54. > :59:57.confusion for people who are leaving the airport and trying to get

:59:58. > :00:06.anywhere else around Brussels, because the transport network is

:00:07. > :00:11.shut down, the city is on lockdown. Just watching the screens, the

:00:12. > :00:13.interior minister in France is just speaking and see if we can listen

:00:14. > :00:23.in. He is still in French, but there is

:00:24. > :00:38.a French interest in this. There will be a lot of interaction

:00:39. > :00:43.between the French and Belgian authorities. The Liberation

:00:44. > :00:47.newspaper is reporting that the border between France and Belgium

:00:48. > :00:53.has been closed. They will want to make sure that the borders are

:00:54. > :00:57.checked. European capitals are reviewing their security. Let me

:00:58. > :01:02.just bring you up to date for our viewers about the situation here in

:01:03. > :01:06.the UK. Gatwick and Heathrow Airport are saying they have stepped up

:01:07. > :01:11.security this morning. You might find at your departure gates this

:01:12. > :01:15.morning, things are an awful lot slower and delays to airlines

:01:16. > :01:18.leaving London today. Also, an important one here from Bristol

:01:19. > :01:25.Airport, they are reporting that they are cancelling all flights

:01:26. > :01:30.until six o'clock tomorrow morning. KLM and Brussels airlines fly out of

:01:31. > :01:34.Bristol to Brussels quite regularly. They have quite a connection to

:01:35. > :01:39.Brussels airport. They will be closed while they review their

:01:40. > :01:44.security until six o'clock. Eurostar has been stopped so no trains going

:01:45. > :01:50.to Brussels from King's Cross St Pancras and no trends from Paris to

:01:51. > :01:55.Brussels either. Belgium at the moment virtually in lockdown, as

:01:56. > :02:01.capitals tend to be when we see these sort of attacks. We have some

:02:02. > :02:07.extraordinary pictures coming in from the departure area where the

:02:08. > :02:12.explosion happened this morning. There is the map. You can see the

:02:13. > :02:17.area circled there. I think we can hear from the French interior

:02:18. > :02:27.Minister and I think we have an English translation.

:02:28. > :02:33.TRANSLATION: All the instructions to take the necessary measures to

:02:34. > :02:43.enforce with the security in the railway station, airports and ports.

:02:44. > :02:56.This is the case where the police prefect, and my instructions have

:02:57. > :02:59.deployed 400 extra police, especially at the main railway

:03:00. > :03:10.stations, public spaces and reserve zones. It is also the case all over

:03:11. > :03:20.the territory, that 600 other policemen have been deployed

:03:21. > :03:28.already. Other measures have been decided regarding public transport.

:03:29. > :03:35.Access to public zones for public transport are reserved for people

:03:36. > :03:41.who carry transport cards or identity cards. Number two,

:03:42. > :03:57.preventative message and raising awareness will be broadcast for the

:03:58. > :04:03.public. Number three, military patrols will be deployed on these

:04:04. > :04:10.sites, so to help the forces already in place. Other measures of control

:04:11. > :04:22.will be systemised and used. Generally speaking, these which hit

:04:23. > :04:28.at the heart of the European Union show the demands we have formulated

:04:29. > :04:36.to reinforce the coordination and to fight against terror, on the

:04:37. > :04:47.European and international level. I am thinking of putting in place a

:04:48. > :04:55.plan, and I'm thinking about the consultation over the control of the

:04:56. > :05:00.Schengen access. Those who are using the Schengen system should be

:05:01. > :05:08.interrogated, once they take steps on European territory. Criminal

:05:09. > :05:14.files should be related to the Schengen issue and the fight

:05:15. > :05:18.against. Humans and papers, and we should mobilise the best experts

:05:19. > :05:22.from our countries, and we should put in place as soon as possible,

:05:23. > :05:31.within the European Union, it is imperative and essential, to have a

:05:32. > :05:40.vigilance, a great vigilance against the danger that we are facing with

:05:41. > :05:48.cold blood, with calm, that we have to act on all subjects. This is what

:05:49. > :05:56.I have stated regarding cooperation between two countries. In

:05:57. > :06:02.trafficking that this should be the subject of reinforced initiative and

:06:03. > :06:07.a decision to modify the directive 91, that cannot wait any more. The

:06:08. > :06:16.president, the Republic and the Prime Minister have reminded us on

:06:17. > :06:21.France's decision to fight and defeat terrorism. This is what we

:06:22. > :06:25.have been doing for the past few months, with regard the escalation

:06:26. > :06:31.and the consolidation of our forces, and the rigorous application within

:06:32. > :06:39.the state of law and the state of emergency, we will pursue this

:06:40. > :06:43.action faced with another threat. I have said on Saturday and I will

:06:44. > :06:50.repeat it again, the threat is at the highest level, thank you. That

:06:51. > :06:57.is the interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. He was one of the first

:06:58. > :07:02.on the scene at the Bataclan Theatre with President Hollande on the night

:07:03. > :07:12.of the attacks in December. The French working closely with the

:07:13. > :07:17.Belgians after the raid on Friday. There is an awful lot they don't

:07:18. > :07:21.know about their own terrorist attack in Paris. Just hearing from

:07:22. > :07:26.UK police that presence is being stepped up at key locations

:07:27. > :07:30.including transport hubs, as a precaution after the explosions in

:07:31. > :07:36.Brussels. Security being stepped up in other European capitals as well.

:07:37. > :07:40.This will not come as a surprise to read the government in France or

:07:41. > :07:43.Belgium, because it has become clear over the last week or so that they

:07:44. > :07:47.were dealing with a much bigger cell that they might have first

:07:48. > :07:52.anticipated. President Hollande talked about that the other day.

:07:53. > :07:57.They have recovered a huge cache of weapons. Obviously, Salah Abdeslam

:07:58. > :08:02.is a focus at the moment. It is not necessarily a revenge attack this,

:08:03. > :08:12.but it is designed to show they have a great capability. The cell in

:08:13. > :08:16.Molenbeek in Belgium has been closely entwined with the drug trade

:08:17. > :08:19.and criminal fraternity. Salah Abdeslam has been able to move from

:08:20. > :08:24.safe house to save house, because they are connected with a drug scene

:08:25. > :08:28.which the local police do not know about. And talking about the

:08:29. > :08:36.increased security response, France is deploying an extra 1600 police at

:08:37. > :08:43.Borders, railways and airports. Belgium said it will hire an extra

:08:44. > :08:47.1000 armed police including snipers and 300 would be deployed to the

:08:48. > :08:53.Molenbeek area. They knew there was this sort of threat in their midst.

:08:54. > :08:58.The problem is, the policing system in Belgium is pretty archaic. The

:08:59. > :09:01.sharing of intelligence between local police and the intelligence

:09:02. > :09:06.agencies is so slow and it has to come with judicial orders, and that

:09:07. > :09:09.is just within Belgium itself. You can imagine the difficulties of

:09:10. > :09:13.sharing intelligence an investigation like Paris between

:09:14. > :09:17.Belgium and France. It has been so laboured over the course of the last

:09:18. > :09:20.few months, that it has been a huge frustration to the likes of Bernard

:09:21. > :09:23.Cazeneuve the interior minister, who we just heard from. He said they

:09:24. > :09:28.need to share intelligence better than they do at the moment, and get

:09:29. > :09:33.to grips with the flow of weapons in central Europe. Every time they go

:09:34. > :09:38.into these apartments as they did on Tuesday, they pick up a Kalashnikov

:09:39. > :09:42.weapon, a weapon of war, 11 cases of rounds of ammunition, and off to

:09:43. > :09:50.keep police at bay for an entire day and that is what happened.

:09:51. > :09:54.Thank you. Let's bring you a statement from the National lead for

:09:55. > :09:59.counterterrorism policing in London. Our thoughts are with the people of

:10:00. > :10:05.Brussels following this morning's horrific attacks. As a precaution,

:10:06. > :10:09.forces across the UK have increased police presence at key locations

:10:10. > :10:14.including transport hubs, to protect the public and provide reassurance.

:10:15. > :10:18.This is not in relation to any specific information or

:10:19. > :10:20.intelligence. In London, the Metropolitan Police Service has

:10:21. > :10:25.mobilised extra officers who will carry out highly visible patrols at

:10:26. > :10:30.key locations around the capital. The number of officers deployed will

:10:31. > :10:34.be regularly assessed. These additional officers are deployed as

:10:35. > :10:38.part of reassurance measures. The police presence across London and

:10:39. > :10:42.the UK is constantly under review. We are in close liaison with the

:10:43. > :10:47.Belgian authorities and will continue to monitor the situation.

:10:48. > :10:58.The threat to the UK from international terrorism will remain

:10:59. > :11:01.severe as it has since August 2014, meaning an attack is highly likely.

:11:02. > :11:03.We'll urge the public and businesses to be alert but not alarmed, and

:11:04. > :11:09.report anything suspicious to the confidential anti-terrorist hotline.

:11:10. > :11:15.We can now speak to a man at Brussels airport who saw the

:11:16. > :11:21.aftermath of the blast. We can also talk to Doctor David low, a former

:11:22. > :11:26.counterterrorism officer and lectures in crime at Liverpool John

:11:27. > :11:34.Moores University. First of all, tell us what you saw? Can you hear

:11:35. > :11:41.us? OK, unfortunately he cannot hear us. We will try to talk to him at

:11:42. > :11:52.the moment. David, we are hearing that security is being stepped up.

:11:53. > :12:01.Is a departures area of an airport, Inc spite of increased security

:12:02. > :12:05.always going to be a soft target? I think it is always likely to be the

:12:06. > :12:10.weakest link. As most people know, over the last ten years or so, we

:12:11. > :12:16.have seen heightened but it is once you get past check-in. It might

:12:17. > :12:23.become a sad day that we are going to have to step up security at the

:12:24. > :12:27.departure lounge area. Of course, it will inconvenience passengers more,

:12:28. > :12:33.because the bottom line is keeping people safe. Is it clear what could

:12:34. > :12:39.be done? It is one of those, where if we start to get too paranoid, I

:12:40. > :12:43.know it sounds strange with what has gone on today, we start get paranoid

:12:44. > :12:49.about stepping up security all the time, this is in one way the impact

:12:50. > :12:54.of the terrorism factor. It is about as trying to live our lives as

:12:55. > :13:00.normally as possible, it is getting that balance right between ensuring

:13:01. > :13:05.safety and normality. I think at the moment, certainly over the last few

:13:06. > :13:09.months, within Europe, you have seen increased cooperation between the

:13:10. > :13:18.police forces and security... David, we must join Oris Johnson.

:13:19. > :13:25.-- we must join Boris Johnson. Well come up with just caught the

:13:26. > :13:33.very end thereof Boris Johnson talking about increasing the police

:13:34. > :13:40.presence of London. There will be additional officers who have been

:13:41. > :13:46.mobilised and talking about that as part of reassurance measures. David,

:13:47. > :13:50.I hope you are still with us. In terms of providing reassurance, how

:13:51. > :13:55.much can be done at underground stations, because this was also an

:13:56. > :13:59.attack on the Metro in Brussels, which again, is an environment which

:14:00. > :14:06.is very different from an airport in terms of security all around the

:14:07. > :14:15.world? Unfortunately, I think we have lost David Lowe. Let me bring

:14:16. > :14:20.in Christian Fraser in the studio. There will be lots of questions

:14:21. > :14:27.about how this gets addressed, London has experienced attacks. That

:14:28. > :14:31.is the striking thing, looking at these pictures, how reminiscent it

:14:32. > :14:37.is of 7/7, and the confusion we all felt trying to get in touch with

:14:38. > :14:42.relatives, trying to get into work, deciding do we carry on to the

:14:43. > :14:45.office or go back home? And then the sound of sirens which reverberates

:14:46. > :14:51.around the city, the panic that there is. We have seen some sad

:14:52. > :14:56.pictures this morning of people really not knowing where to go,

:14:57. > :15:00.people running from the airports, cowering under bridges and the

:15:01. > :15:05.distressing pictures of emergency services dealing with the injuries.

:15:06. > :15:10.The first responders on the scenes, they see some horrific sights and

:15:11. > :15:17.our hearts go out to them. And also very difficult for the politicians.

:15:18. > :15:23.I think we will hear from the Belgian Prime Minister in the not

:15:24. > :15:29.too distant future. He gave comments about how difficult it was for

:15:30. > :15:34.locking down the city. He said I prefer for people to think we were

:15:35. > :15:37.little too strong in our response than two feeble. This is not a time

:15:38. > :15:41.for repair ruminations that people will look at that statement and the

:15:42. > :15:45.sort of jocular nature there was at a press conference there was on

:15:46. > :15:49.Friday, between him and President Hollande, as if he was a little too

:15:50. > :15:53.relaxed about the situation. They reviewed security on to spend

:15:54. > :15:56.Wednesday, they kept the security level at three below the highest

:15:57. > :16:11.level, and now they will be looking at that

:16:12. > :16:15.with the beauty of hindsight saying all the signs were pointing towards

:16:16. > :16:17.something else. We have arrested 54 people since the Paris attacks, 11

:16:18. > :16:19.people in custody, and two people linked to Salah Abdeslam still on

:16:20. > :16:30.the run. We don't know about the other person

:16:31. > :16:35.who drove with Salah Abdeslam. We knew of two other people, not to

:16:36. > :16:37.mention the bigger cell that they have talked about, which was much

:16:38. > :16:43.bigger than they might have anticipated. Belgium is sending 225

:16:44. > :16:50.extra troops to Brussels following the explosions. At least 13 people

:16:51. > :16:57.dead. More troops going to Brussels as the city is effectively in rock

:16:58. > :17:01.down. Let's bring you up to date, there has been a series of

:17:02. > :17:08.explosions in Brussels this morning, golden prosecutors say two

:17:09. > :17:11.explosions at the airport were suicide attacks, they happened soon

:17:12. > :17:15.after 8am local time in the departure area. It was followed an

:17:16. > :17:21.hour later by a third blast on the Metro close to the main EU

:17:22. > :17:28.buildings, at least 13 of reported dead at the airport, with reports of

:17:29. > :17:32.ten others killed on the Metro, which had just left Maelbeek

:17:33. > :17:36.station. Security has been raised to the maximum level across the

:17:37. > :17:42.country. People run away from the scene of the explosions and smoke

:17:43. > :17:45.rose from a terminal building. The airport has been evacuated and is

:17:46. > :17:50.closed until further notice. All flights from Brussels have been

:17:51. > :17:55.cancelled and planes heading there are being diverted. Rail travel to

:17:56. > :17:59.the airport has been suspended. You restore into Brussels also

:18:00. > :18:06.suspended. The explosion on the Metro close to the main EU

:18:07. > :18:10.buildings, these pictures of the immediate aftermath show black smoke

:18:11. > :18:16.below link from the entrance. The entire Metro network in Brussels is

:18:17. > :18:20.closed, the EU has ordered its staff who have arrived at work to remain

:18:21. > :18:24.indoors. That is the message to all in Brussels today, stay where you

:18:25. > :18:30.are a the message from the Belgian crisis centre. Hundreds of people

:18:31. > :18:34.fled the scenes of the blast, one witness said that by running away

:18:35. > :18:38.from the initial small explosion at the airport, they ran towards the

:18:39. > :18:41.second larger blast. Here are some of the commuters caught up in the

:18:42. > :18:45.horrific incidents. We felt the explosion. There was

:18:46. > :19:10.some glass over my site. We only saw some smashed windows. We

:19:11. > :19:17.did not get any information. Did you see or hear the explosion? I walked

:19:18. > :19:20.through a load of stuff, glass, smoke, water dripping from the

:19:21. > :19:26.ceiling, we had to walk through puddles armour and we were

:19:27. > :19:28.evacuated. I was just waiting for my suitcase, and somebody said over the

:19:29. > :19:37.loudspeaker, this is an evacuation will stop we were taken outside.

:19:38. > :19:41.The blast in Brussels, four days after the capture in the city of

:19:42. > :19:46.Salah Abdeslam, who investigators say was one of the men behind the

:19:47. > :19:49.Paris attacks last November. After his arrest the Belgian Foreign

:19:50. > :19:54.Minister warned the discovery of a cache of weapons suggested that his

:19:55. > :19:58.accomplices could be ready to carry out further attacks. French police

:19:59. > :20:02.said the attacks in Paris which killed 130 people were largely

:20:03. > :20:05.planned in Brussels by conspirators linked to the so-called Islamic

:20:06. > :20:10.state. No group has yet claimed response ability for the attacks

:20:11. > :20:16.today. Well Jim is sending an additional 225 troops to Brussels --

:20:17. > :20:19.Alger. In the UK police are increasing their presence in key

:20:20. > :20:24.locations, the Met police have said additional officers will be on

:20:25. > :20:27.patrol, including on the London transport network. David Cameron

:20:28. > :20:31.will chair a meeting of the emergency committee in response to

:20:32. > :20:36.the attacks. The Terry Lovell in the UK remains severe, means an attack

:20:37. > :20:42.is highly likely -- the terror level. Oris Johnson has been

:20:43. > :20:48.speaking. It is a terrible event, our thoughts

:20:49. > :20:54.are with the victims, their families. I want to stress that we

:20:55. > :21:00.know of no immediate implications for this city, although we are

:21:01. > :21:05.stepping up the present at transport hubs and major airports. But that

:21:06. > :21:09.has bothered to do with any information, is purely for

:21:10. > :21:15.reassurance. -- nothing to do. We are stepping up presence in major

:21:16. > :21:20.airports and transport hubs, but that is purely for reassurance, it

:21:21. > :21:27.does not reflect any intelligence we have about the threat to this city.

:21:28. > :21:31.That is Boris Johnson talking about the increased security in London, it

:21:32. > :21:37.is a picture replicated in other European cities, security is also

:21:38. > :21:41.being stepped up in Paris, with 1600 extra officers being deployed across

:21:42. > :21:46.France. Let's look at some of the pictures of the injured being

:21:47. > :21:51.treated outside Maelbeek station. The initial aftermath of that

:21:52. > :21:55.explosion indicated that they could have been several explosions, but it

:21:56. > :22:00.seems that it was effectively the noise of the explosion at Maelbeek

:22:01. > :22:05.reverberating down the Underground lines. We spoke to one eyewitness at

:22:06. > :22:12.a station adjacent to Maelbeek, talking about the dust filling the

:22:13. > :22:18.Underground line. People evacuating the adjacent stations. Pictures of

:22:19. > :22:24.people being treated on the street right outside Maelbeek. Kristian,

:22:25. > :22:30.what is the latest on casualties at Maelbeek? It has been a confusing

:22:31. > :22:34.picture, we have had reports from people who thought it was a car

:22:35. > :22:39.bomb, but we have heard from other eyewitnesses who said it was inside

:22:40. > :22:42.the station. Some say that none were injured, some say ten were killed.

:22:43. > :22:48.We should stick with the state broadcaster, who says ten were

:22:49. > :22:52.killed. These are the first responders that were on the scene.

:22:53. > :22:55.There was confusion because they thought there had been an explosion

:22:56. > :22:59.just down the line from Maelbeek, but apparently the echoes were

:23:00. > :23:06.reverberating through the terminal, so it was up this station. Sadly,

:23:07. > :23:14.emergency services train for this all the time, a multiple attack on a

:23:15. > :23:19.city, with suicide explosions and gunfire and secondary explosions.

:23:20. > :23:23.They will be highly trained in this sort of thing. There will be a plan

:23:24. > :23:26.which will have been put in place all the way back to the Paris

:23:27. > :23:31.attacks in November, which hospitals will deal with the most seriously

:23:32. > :23:37.injured, which are the secondary hospitals, and how the police will

:23:38. > :23:41.react, who then takes over. It is a confused picture in Belgium, lots of

:23:42. > :23:45.different police forces, federal police, local police, the army on

:23:46. > :23:52.the streets are just outside the commission building. 500 metres from

:23:53. > :23:56.the Maelbeek Metro station. There would have had to have been very

:23:57. > :24:04.quick coordination, but something that they will be well versed in.

:24:05. > :24:07.Are there people on the run after these attacks? We have had

:24:08. > :24:11.confirmation that at least one of the attacks was a suicide bomber,

:24:12. > :24:15.but it is not clear what the situation is for all of them. There

:24:16. > :24:20.is a number of people who have come to light in the past week, we don't

:24:21. > :24:26.know an awful lot about them, they have caught the Belgian authorities

:24:27. > :24:33.on the hop. The mandate killed in an apartment was 36 years old, he

:24:34. > :24:35.returned from Syria, who worked in a sweet factory, sitting in an

:24:36. > :24:41.apartment they thought was empty, they go through the door and inside

:24:42. > :24:46.was an enormous cache of rounds and a Kalashnikov rifles, and two people

:24:47. > :24:50.who went out of the window, they don't know who they were. They

:24:51. > :24:54.suspect one of them was Salah Abdeslam, but maybe they were not.

:24:55. > :24:59.Maybe they were involved in what is going on here. As they have carried

:25:00. > :25:03.on the investigation, we have heard a number of politicians in Belgium

:25:04. > :25:07.and France talking about the risk that is there, the heightened

:25:08. > :25:10.threat, and not knowing enough about the cell connected to France to

:25:11. > :25:21.confidently predict something like this. These pictures now from above

:25:22. > :25:35.the Metro station Maelbeek. They close by? This building... The EU

:25:36. > :25:39.Council building blocks down the street, the boulevard is off to the

:25:40. > :25:47.right, which runs parallel to the European Commission building. Those

:25:48. > :25:50.are the two closest Metro stations to the heart of Europe, they have

:25:51. > :25:56.been picked for a particular reason, and at that time of the morning,

:25:57. > :26:00.they are an hour ahead of us, 9am, it would have been full of commuters

:26:01. > :26:04.and people who would be going to the UN building down that road, the

:26:05. > :26:08.European Commission buildings, and all the Government departments. They

:26:09. > :26:11.have been told to either stay put if they are there or to work from home

:26:12. > :26:19.while they get a grip of the situation.

:26:20. > :26:28.It is a pretty calm situation there outside the railway station in

:26:29. > :26:33.Brussels where the explosion happened early. So many people on

:26:34. > :26:37.the streets, people being treated outside the Metro station on the

:26:38. > :26:44.street. Our reporter reports now from the scene.

:26:45. > :26:48.I am in Brussels in the European quarter, next to the European

:26:49. > :26:53.Commission, the European Council, there is a huge police presence,

:26:54. > :27:00.helicopters, police cars, ambulances, army trucks coming and

:27:01. > :27:06.going. There is Maelbeek Metro station over there, it has been

:27:07. > :27:11.closed off, so nobody is allowed in, but there has been an explosion

:27:12. > :27:14.there at 9am this morning. I spoke to a woman who came out of the

:27:15. > :27:22.station, she said she was waiting for the Metro when she heard a very

:27:23. > :27:26.loud noise, there was glass everywhere, she saw people injured.

:27:27. > :27:32.Let's go to the Belgian Prime Minister holding a news conference.

:27:33. > :27:39.TRANSLATION: Our first thoughts are with the victims, their families,

:27:40. > :27:47.and those waiting for information from their loved ones. Two attacks

:27:48. > :27:55.happened this morning, one at the airport and the other at the Metro

:27:56. > :27:58.station, Maelbeek. As we speak, the crisis centre, because of the

:27:59. > :28:04.Security Centre, we are trying to stabilise the situation. Our

:28:05. > :28:12.thoughts are going towards other locations. The first urgent action

:28:13. > :28:18.is to provide treatment for the victims, to evacuate the victims of

:28:19. > :28:28.this attack, towards various hospitals, and we know that probably

:28:29. > :28:34.we are talking about scores of dead, scores of injured persons, and some

:28:35. > :28:41.of them seriously. The authorities are evaluating the threat and raised

:28:42. > :28:45.it to level four, and additional security measures are being taken as

:28:46. > :28:52.we speak, military reinforcement is being deployed, reinforcement of

:28:53. > :28:57.border control is in action, and especially measures regarding public

:28:58. > :29:10.transport are being put in place as we speak. I would like to tell you

:29:11. > :29:14.at this black moment in our country, as never before I would like to call

:29:15. > :29:20.on everybody to show calmness and solidarity. We are facing a

:29:21. > :29:28.difficult, challenging time, and we should face up to this challenge by

:29:29. > :29:34.being united, and coming together. We will continue to follow the

:29:35. > :29:42.situation minute by minute, with different security services, with

:29:43. > :29:45.different rescue services. I would like to thank the security services

:29:46. > :29:50.for the work they have done so far, and I would like to tell you again

:29:51. > :29:57.that we are determined to face this situation and manage it, and deal

:29:58. > :30:28.with it as best as possible. STUDIO: We have momentarily lost the

:30:29. > :30:34.translation so we will try and get that back. The Belgian Prime

:30:35. > :30:40.Minister said, what we fear has happened, scores of people are dead,

:30:41. > :30:46.some seriously. He described it as a black moment in our country and said

:30:47. > :30:51.we must show calmness and solidarity facing a difficult time. Christian,

:30:52. > :30:57.that really says it, when he said what we feared had happened. Yes,

:30:58. > :31:00.and the man sitting next to him is the Belgian prosecutor and they have

:31:01. > :31:04.been interrogating Salah Abdeslam and I imagine they will have been

:31:05. > :31:09.putting him under enormous pressure. He said over the last few days, they

:31:10. > :31:14.have spoken to him in the initial stages. It was clear he was planning

:31:15. > :31:17.something else. But his pretty evident from what they have

:31:18. > :31:24.discovered in the apartments they raided. He said we have found bits

:31:25. > :31:28.of pieces of the puzzle, but we are still far from solving the puzzle of

:31:29. > :31:33.a whole, really pointing people to the fact there was a threat out

:31:34. > :31:40.there as we heard from Charles Michel. The city is in lockdown, in

:31:41. > :31:45.the early hours after the explosions. I guess the question

:31:46. > :31:50.will be how long will be lockdown go on for? Not an easy city to

:31:51. > :31:56.lockdown. There are a lot of international trends coming in and

:31:57. > :32:01.various borders as well with neighbouring countries to shut down

:32:02. > :32:05.as well. The one thing that strikes me is this the first time in recent

:32:06. > :32:11.times that Belgium itself has been hit. It has always been a travelling

:32:12. > :32:17.hub. Let's listen to what Charles Michel have to say.

:32:18. > :32:22.TRANSLATION: We are in a situation to evacuate the injured. It is

:32:23. > :32:27.difficult to give you precise responses to your questions, because

:32:28. > :32:36.we are waiting and evaluation from other hospitals with regard the

:32:37. > :32:43.identity of the victims, so that we can inform others who are not

:32:44. > :32:50.Belgian, we have to inform the embassies so we can provide support.

:32:51. > :32:54.I will give the floor to the federal prosecutor, because this situation

:32:55. > :33:01.will be opening our judicial process.

:33:02. > :33:06.Thank you, Mr Prime Minister, thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This

:33:07. > :33:14.morning, we have had two attacks at the departure lounge at Zaventem.

:33:15. > :33:18.One was probably carried out by a kamikaze, a suicide bomber. Half an

:33:19. > :33:24.hour later, another explosion at Maelbeek. We had to have more time

:33:25. > :33:29.to secure the situation, and also to look into the baggage, to make sure

:33:30. > :33:33.there were no other explosive objects in the luggage. For now, it

:33:34. > :33:39.is too early to give you a precise number of the victims. Like the

:33:40. > :33:44.Prime Minister had said, the Prime Minister is effectively to treat the

:33:45. > :33:50.injured and some of them are seriously injured. A judicial

:33:51. > :34:00.procedure has been opened about what has happened at Zaventem, to put

:34:01. > :34:04.everything in place, to trace the perpetrators of the attacks, and to

:34:05. > :34:14.find out if there are any other perpetrators who are on the run. We

:34:15. > :34:17.have been entrusted with the enquiry and they are looking at all the

:34:18. > :34:28.pictures and photos from the CCTV camera. Different procedures have

:34:29. > :34:34.been put in place, and different services are working, so to put

:34:35. > :34:34.everything in place, so we can normalise the situation and

:34:35. > :35:01.progress. STUDIO: This news conference

:35:02. > :35:06.bringing us up with the latest details with what has happened in

:35:07. > :35:12.Paris. The Prime Minister said what we fear has happened. We have heard

:35:13. > :35:15.about tightening security across Belgium and specifically mentioning

:35:16. > :35:22.nuclear plants across the country. It follows on from investigators who

:35:23. > :35:27.were investigating the Paris attacks, as part of the additional

:35:28. > :35:30.security measures they are outlining, nuclear plants are also

:35:31. > :35:36.having their surveillance stepped up. We are hearing from other

:35:37. > :35:40.European countries increasing their security. The German Federal police

:35:41. > :35:47.say they are increasing their security measures because of the

:35:48. > :35:52.explosions, the same in Paris and London. Christian, you are getting

:35:53. > :35:57.an update? I'm just looking at reports from the news Reuters,

:35:58. > :36:05.saying small blasts have been heard close to the Maelbeek Metro. It

:36:06. > :36:11.appears the police bomb squad are on location. Let's go back to the press

:36:12. > :36:15.conference. TRANSLATION: At the moment, we are

:36:16. > :36:23.prioritising to provide support to the victims, to take the victims to

:36:24. > :36:31.different hospitals, to security two secure the situation as soon as

:36:32. > :36:40.possible. We have no other information with regard to this, and

:36:41. > :36:50.the precept will discuss this. INAUDIBLE

:36:51. > :36:57.Number three is a high-level which says the

:36:58. > :37:00.threats are serious and possible, and they have been raised and that

:37:01. > :37:13.has been the case for a few months now.

:37:14. > :37:39.STUDIO: Let me bring you up to date with some casualties figures we are

:37:40. > :37:44.getting. According to the Belgian broadcaster quoting the transport

:37:45. > :37:50.operator saying the Metro explosion killed 15 and injured 55, ten

:37:51. > :37:56.critically. In France, the Prime Minister Manuel Valls has been

:37:57. > :37:59.quoted by a broadcaster saying we face a particularly elevated threat,

:38:00. > :38:02.we are at war in Europe. We have been subjected to acts of war for

:38:03. > :38:13.several months. Let's listen to the news conference.

:38:14. > :38:16.TRANSLATION: The investigation will continue and we will have other

:38:17. > :38:37.opportunities to clarify the situation.

:38:38. > :38:42.STUDIO: That news conference bringing us up to date with the

:38:43. > :38:50.Belgian Prime Minister saying what we fear has happened. And attack at

:38:51. > :38:54.brussels airport and an attack on the Brussels Metro. The reports are

:38:55. > :39:00.the Prime Minister said scores of dead, scores of injured, some

:39:01. > :39:04.seriously. They are still confirming the exact number of casualties in

:39:05. > :39:09.what has been described as a black moment in our country by the Belgian

:39:10. > :39:18.Prime Minister. We can bring in a Labour MEP who is chair of Justice

:39:19. > :39:21.at the European Parliament. He was trying to make his way to the

:39:22. > :39:24.European Parliament but his train was cancelled. Tell us what you have

:39:25. > :39:32.been able to ascertain about what has gone on. The first thing to say

:39:33. > :39:38.is that as MEPs, we know the city very well. We work there and the

:39:39. > :39:43.scale of this devastation is extraordinary. I think that is the

:39:44. > :39:48.first thing to say, our sympathies are with all the victims and the

:39:49. > :39:54.numbers seem to be going up as we speak will stop the casualty figures

:39:55. > :39:58.seem to be going up. You heard earlier from one of my colleagues

:39:59. > :40:05.inside the building, that things were in lockdown. This, for a

:40:06. > :40:09.medium-sized city like Brussels is extraordinary. We were not on the

:40:10. > :40:16.highest level of alert for Brussels which I thought was an issue. Now

:40:17. > :40:23.there will be visible changes on the streets and places. Zaventem

:40:24. > :40:28.airport, for people who know it, is a very public area as you go in.

:40:29. > :40:31.Anyone who understands that airport space will understand what the

:40:32. > :40:38.devastation will have been like for people. It is the same for the Metro

:40:39. > :40:44.area. It is shocking to hear. Let me just bring an update on the exact

:40:45. > :40:48.location of the explosions in the airport. American Airlines saying it

:40:49. > :40:52.has got additional clarity because the explosions were reported to have

:40:53. > :41:04.been centred on the American Airlines departures area of Brussels

:41:05. > :41:06.airport. They say there were two separate explosions, one in zone

:41:07. > :41:09.three, one in zone 11. We are in zone eight so we're not the closest

:41:10. > :41:13.check-in desk. Confirmation that there were two separate explosions,

:41:14. > :41:17.one of those explosions was a suicide bomber. Claude Moraes, you

:41:18. > :41:22.were talking about the security lockdown but there is in Brussels,

:41:23. > :41:26.presumably, it could be open-ended, could it? We saw a security lockdown

:41:27. > :41:31.after the Paris attacks and it went on for some time. I think there will

:41:32. > :41:36.be some visible differences now because of the scale of the attack.

:41:37. > :41:40.It is well-known in Brussels that have the highest concentration of

:41:41. > :41:44.so-called foreign fighters, in fact they are home grown anywhere in the

:41:45. > :41:50.European Union, and this has been an ongoing issue. Now, because of the

:41:51. > :41:54.scale of this attack, there will be more visible signs of security,

:41:55. > :42:01.although there were very visible signs already in public places,

:42:02. > :42:08.soldiers on the streets and so one, and that was already the case. There

:42:09. > :42:14.will now be more marked signs of this. There was already heightened

:42:15. > :42:18.intelligence sharing going on. Many heightened elements were already

:42:19. > :42:22.happening, but now there will be a much higher scale, a bigger volume

:42:23. > :42:27.of soldiers being brought into Brussels. That has already been

:42:28. > :42:32.announced by the Brussels authorities. Claude Moraes, thank

:42:33. > :42:37.you. Let's hear from our Brussels correspondent Ben Wright. He has

:42:38. > :42:42.been at the airport and spoke to an eyewitness when the explosions

:42:43. > :42:45.happened. In the beginning, everyone was

:42:46. > :42:50.running the same way, because the explosion was on the left side so

:42:51. > :42:55.everyone was running the other side. So one explosion was on one side of

:42:56. > :43:00.the terminal building and then there was another explosion? How close

:43:01. > :43:04.were they together? Not very close. The first one was that the American

:43:05. > :43:14.Airlines desk. The second explosion was nearby the Starbucks, the coffee

:43:15. > :43:23.shop. It was like, I did know... It was not nearby each other. It was

:43:24. > :43:29.like 100 metres from each other. And was one of them nearer the entrance?

:43:30. > :43:36.Yes, near the entrance. So if people were running from the first, to the

:43:37. > :43:42.entrance, they were running in the other direction, and that is the

:43:43. > :43:50.order they went off, the two explosions? This, the Belgian Prime

:43:51. > :43:55.Minister said, this is what we feared would happen. He spoke of

:43:56. > :43:59.schools being injured, some seriously. Two explosions at

:44:00. > :44:06.brussels airport and one at the Maelbeek station. The Prime Minister

:44:07. > :44:13.said we must all show calmness and solidarity facing a difficult and

:44:14. > :44:21.challenging time. Christian? That eyewitness seems to

:44:22. > :44:25.have confirmed there were two explosions, one trying to capture

:44:26. > :44:30.people running away, designed to catch as many people as possible, we

:44:31. > :44:36.think 13 people killed at the moment. A huge security operation

:44:37. > :44:41.underway to ensure there are not bombs in the bags which have already

:44:42. > :44:46.gone through. And then a second explosion at Maelbeek close to the

:44:47. > :44:49.European Commission building. Maybe 15 people killed and many more

:44:50. > :44:55.injured. We are hearing reports of small explosions at the moment,

:44:56. > :45:00.controlled explosions by the bomb squad who are on location. It is

:45:01. > :45:04.very close to the centre of the European government of Brussels, and

:45:05. > :45:10.I think this will be a confusing and fluid picture for some hours to

:45:11. > :45:15.come. Continuing coverage of the dramatic developments continues on

:45:16. > :45:18.BBC One, the BBC News Channel and BBC World News. All the very latest

:45:19. > :45:24.live from Brussels on those explosions.

:45:25. > :45:31.Hello. You are watching a BBC News special about the continuing

:45:32. > :45:34.situation in Brussels. The Belgian capital is hit by a series of

:45:35. > :45:41.suicide attacks killing at least 26 people. At least 11 people are

:45:42. > :45:45.killed and Brussels International Airport as two explosions tore

:45:46. > :45:47.through the departures hall. Scores of people injured after the ceiling

:45:48. > :45:54.caved in with the force of the blasts. I heard a shot fired and

:45:55. > :45:58.someone shouted in Arabic followed by a huge explosion and people

:45:59. > :46:03.started to flee towards the lifts and escalators. An hour later during

:46:04. > :46:08.rush-hour and another explosion at a metro station in the City, 15 people

:46:09. > :46:12.of their dead there. We will bring you the latest live, the threat

:46:13. > :46:17.level has been raised to maximum in Brussels and people last -- are

:46:18. > :46:35.asked to remain where they are. You are watching a BBC News special

:46:36. > :46:38.on the breaking news of fatal explosions in the Belgian capital

:46:39. > :46:43.Brussels. We are now hearing at least 27 people are thought to have

:46:44. > :46:47.died, many more injured. At least 11 people are believed to have been

:46:48. > :46:51.killed and more than 30 injured in two explosions in the departures

:46:52. > :46:56.lounge at Brussels airport, the Belgian prosecutor confirmed they

:46:57. > :47:01.were carried out by eight suicide bomber. An hour later another

:47:02. > :47:08.explosion at the metro station in the centre of Brussels, close to the

:47:09. > :47:16.main European buildings. -- Maelbeek Metro station. The Belgian Prime

:47:17. > :47:19.Minister Charles Michel called for calm and solidarity and is sending

:47:20. > :47:25.more than 200 extra troops to the capital. He said it was the attack

:47:26. > :47:29.we always feared. People have been told to stay inside, the Metro and

:47:30. > :47:34.rail services have been closed and Eurostar trains have been cancelled

:47:35. > :47:38.and the Belgian capital already on a state of high alert following the

:47:39. > :47:42.arrest of the Paris Terror suspect Salah Abdeslam in the City last

:47:43. > :47:45.week. The first explosions went off in the departure hall at Brussels

:47:46. > :47:53.airport prompting hundreds of people to flee, one witness said that they

:47:54. > :47:57.ran towards the second larger blast. These were some of the people caught

:47:58. > :48:04.up this morning. You felt the explosion? Yes. Last went over me.

:48:05. > :48:27.-- gloss went. -- glass. We only saw some smashed windows. We

:48:28. > :48:33.did not get any information. Did you see or hear the explosion? No, but I

:48:34. > :48:36.had to walk through a load of splinters and smoke and water

:48:37. > :48:40.dripping from the ceiling. We had to walk through puddles and then we

:48:41. > :48:45.were evacuated. I was just waiting for my suitcase and then somebody

:48:46. > :48:53.said over the loudspeakers, this is an evacuation. We were just taken

:48:54. > :48:59.outside. A huge amount of chaos and confusion. Ben Wright is at the

:49:00. > :49:04.airport and he spoke to another eyewitness who was in the terminal

:49:05. > :49:08.when the bombs went off. In the beginning everyone was running the

:49:09. > :49:12.same way, because the explosion was on the left side and everybody was

:49:13. > :49:15.running to the other side. One explosion was on one side of the

:49:16. > :49:22.terminal building and there was another explosion... How close

:49:23. > :49:26.together were they? Not very close because the first one was at the

:49:27. > :49:30.American Airlines desk, and the second explosion on the other side

:49:31. > :49:43.was near the Starbucks desk, the coffee shop. It was like, I don't

:49:44. > :49:47.know, not nearby each other. Like 100m from each other. The first one

:49:48. > :49:51.there, the other one there. Was one of them nearer the entrance? Yes,

:49:52. > :49:57.the second one was near to the entrance. People were running from

:49:58. > :50:01.the first,... They were running in the direction of the second? Is that

:50:02. > :50:08.what you think may have happened? Indeed, yes. That was the order that

:50:09. > :50:14.the two explosions went off? Yes. This eyewitness was also in the

:50:15. > :50:18.airport. I was having my break inside the building, and I just

:50:19. > :50:23.heard a loud bang and everything was shaking. Outside the window there

:50:24. > :50:32.was smoke coming out of the departure hall. Yes, they were doing

:50:33. > :50:37.some construction work so we thought maybe something was wrong there.

:50:38. > :50:43.After that it became clear that it was a terrorist explosion. Did you

:50:44. > :50:49.hear or see the explosions? Yes, I felt them and heard them. It was

:50:50. > :50:55.maybe 50 or 60 metres from the departure hall where the explosion

:50:56. > :50:58.was. Did you see it before or after? Just from the outside we saw that

:50:59. > :51:05.all of the windows were shattered. All of the windows were gone. Let's

:51:06. > :51:09.go live to Brussels and our correspondent Gavin Lee is there.

:51:10. > :51:14.You are quite close to the airport, tell us what is happening there now.

:51:15. > :51:19.Yes, less than 500 metres away where the police cordon is. You can see

:51:20. > :51:24.the continued evacuation with buses coming from the airports, people are

:51:25. > :51:28.being taken to a sports hall, there is another information centre, and

:51:29. > :51:31.they keep coming. For the past half-hour people have been leaving

:51:32. > :51:36.the airport. Many people in the departures lounge, we believe the

:51:37. > :51:40.explosions happened in the atrium downstairs as people were checking

:51:41. > :51:46.their baggage. Those upstairs about to fly or just flying from another

:51:47. > :51:48.airport, these people are now being continually evacuated, waiting for

:51:49. > :51:54.other buses to make their way to a sports hall. I have spoken to a man

:51:55. > :51:59.who was a security help with baggage at the airports and he was telling

:52:00. > :52:03.me that he personally helped with 17 people, pulling them to safety after

:52:04. > :52:08.he heard shouting in Arabic, and then he heard the explosions. He was

:52:09. > :52:12.pulling a number of people, several people he was trying to pull to

:52:13. > :52:15.safety, died in front of him and he had a vivid description of how many

:52:16. > :52:20.people were screaming and some of them running over each other at the

:52:21. > :52:23.airport, a lot of people have said there was absolute panic, there was

:52:24. > :52:28.no evacuation strategy of course, they just had to run. If you show

:52:29. > :52:32.the camera this way, this is a business is off the back of the

:52:33. > :52:37.airport, people making their way, many are not sure where they are

:52:38. > :52:42.supposed to go. This line stretches to several thousand people

:52:43. > :52:48.altogether including hundreds on the other side. If we can quickly have a

:52:49. > :52:55.word with some people here, Joy, you were trying to travel to Tel Aviv

:52:56. > :52:59.this morning. Yes. Tell us about what you heard and saw. I did not

:53:00. > :53:03.hear anything, I was on my way to my connecting gate and a lot of people

:53:04. > :53:06.were running. I was not really sure what it was and then there were some

:53:07. > :53:12.announcements that clearly something had gone wrong. The woman's voice

:53:13. > :53:18.was quite shaken, on the intercom. That's when I knew we should move.

:53:19. > :53:24.Yes, we evacuated. I don't know very much about it. When I first spoke to

:53:25. > :53:28.you a moment ago, you looked shaken. Deeply upset by what happened, how

:53:29. > :53:38.are you feeling right now? Yes, it's... Not something you expect.

:53:39. > :53:41.But also, I don't know, yes... Some people have described running out

:53:42. > :53:46.and it was desperate, people running on top of other people to try to get

:53:47. > :53:51.out as quickly as they could, there was no real evacuation plan? Err...

:53:52. > :53:55.At first it was disorganised but by the time I was there people were

:53:56. > :53:58.quite calm and just walking towards the exits and following directions

:53:59. > :54:05.and by the time we were all waiting, they were bringing water and

:54:06. > :54:08.blankets, and people were calm actually. Maybe because they did not

:54:09. > :54:17.know what was going on all because I came after the initial attack. So

:54:18. > :54:20.yes... Did you see as you were being escorted away, did you see the

:54:21. > :54:25.damage that was done to the building? I saw and heard nothing, I

:54:26. > :54:33.only saw just large amounts of people trying to evacuate. You are

:54:34. > :54:42.in this long queue of people, with blankets, many people visit --

:54:43. > :54:46.visibly in shock. Do you know where you are going now? No, they just

:54:47. > :54:50.keep saying we are going to a safer location and the airport is shutdown

:54:51. > :54:55.for 48 hours, I heard. I suppose they are trying to find out what to

:54:56. > :55:02.do with all of us. Yes, I don't know. I have no idea. Thank you for

:55:03. > :55:07.joining us. Good luck. You can hear and see at the moment the scene

:55:08. > :55:11.around us here, many of the security staff came around a short while ago

:55:12. > :55:15.as well and we got a sense of the bigger picture as to what was going

:55:16. > :55:20.on. Right in the atrium number of people said it was by the American

:55:21. > :55:23.Airlines check-in desk that they heard the major explosion, two

:55:24. > :55:28.explosions, one of them was quieter and a larger second explosion did

:55:29. > :55:31.most of the damage, the windows being shattered from the main

:55:32. > :55:37.entrance. As you can see a lot of people in blankets and shawls and

:55:38. > :55:43.there is lots of confusion about where they are going but they are

:55:44. > :55:47.heading to a sports hall. Where am I going? You are going to a sports

:55:48. > :55:56.hall and the authorities say you will get information. What was your

:55:57. > :56:10.situation? I am in the second floor. And it has broken. There was another

:56:11. > :56:15.one. You saw a policeman firing? Tell me about that. What was

:56:16. > :56:33.happening after? This is the problem. It is a problem. Where am I

:56:34. > :56:37.going? Who is helping? I don't have any money to pay for the train.

:56:38. > :56:42.There is a lot of confusion. Thank you for joining us. You get the

:56:43. > :56:45.sense of the scene around us at the moment, this is a significant

:56:46. > :56:50.incident and people are worrying about what they can do. Safety is a

:56:51. > :56:54.big factor, our people safe here? Given what has happened and they are

:56:55. > :57:01.hearing at the explosion at the mile beat Jude station, close to the

:57:02. > :57:05.European Parliament. -- Maelbeek station. We are seeing clarification

:57:06. > :57:12.from American Airlines saying that the explosions were far enough away

:57:13. > :57:16.from their check-in desk that no employees were hurt and other

:57:17. > :57:20.check-in desks were closer. Generally is it safe to say that

:57:21. > :57:27.this part of the airport was pretty open and easy for people to move

:57:28. > :57:33.around? I have seen some footage from one of the security guards

:57:34. > :57:38.involved in moving people away from the airport, lots of people lying on

:57:39. > :57:40.the floor and scrambling to leave, apparently from that angle

:57:41. > :57:44.relatively close to the American Airlines desk but we are hearing

:57:45. > :57:50.that it was not their desk, but I think we have a sense here that it

:57:51. > :57:55.was fairly central and for those who have not been to Brussels airport it

:57:56. > :57:59.is very open and there are usually, you will see seven or eight

:58:00. > :58:05.uniformed army officers walking around the terminals as well, given

:58:06. > :58:10.the incident since the Paris attacks, and the heightened security

:58:11. > :58:13.alert. We were told that there would be an extremely heightened operation

:58:14. > :58:17.following the arrest of Salah Abdeslam. It was four days ago that

:58:18. > :58:24.the missing suspect from the Paris attacks was arrested and only

:58:25. > :58:30.yesterday the interior Minister Jan Jambon said other terror cells could

:58:31. > :58:32.look to operate after that arrest. The Prime Minister Charles Michel

:58:33. > :58:37.said scores of people were injured but there is no exact number at the

:58:38. > :58:41.moment. At the airport and that the Maelbeek station as well. For the

:58:42. > :58:45.moment thank you very much, Gavin Lee close to the airport in

:58:46. > :58:49.Brussels. Let's bring you more about what happened at the Maelbeek metro

:58:50. > :58:53.station. An hour after the airport explosion there was another large

:58:54. > :58:59.explosion at the Metro station and 15 people may have died there with

:59:00. > :59:07.many people injured, 250 people. -- up to 50. Our correspondent is

:59:08. > :59:11.there. I'm in the European quarter in Brussels next to the European

:59:12. > :59:14.Commission and the council and a huge police presence. We saw

:59:15. > :59:19.helicopters, police cars, ambulances, army trucks coming and

:59:20. > :59:26.going. That is because, let me show you, that is Maelbeek Metro station.

:59:27. > :59:31.It has been closed off so no one is allowed in, but there has been an

:59:32. > :59:36.explosion there at 9am this morning. I just spoke to a woman who came out

:59:37. > :59:40.of the station, she told me she was waiting for the Metro when all of a

:59:41. > :59:46.sudden she heard a very loud noise, there was glass everywhere and she

:59:47. > :59:54.saw people injured. She told me that she was in shock. Given the number

:59:55. > :00:00.of ambulances that we so we think there are many injured. The

:00:01. > :00:04.situation is surreal. A reporter for politico told Joanna Gosling what

:00:05. > :00:08.she saw in the aftermath of the barn at Maelbeek metro station. I was

:00:09. > :00:14.outside the Maelbeek metro station, probably a dozen, 15 people lying on

:00:15. > :00:18.the ground outside covered in white sheets. They seemed to be injured

:00:19. > :00:24.but I did not see anyone dared, but I was on the outside of the Metro

:00:25. > :00:26.station looking at the scene. There were people milling around, the

:00:27. > :00:34.ambulances and fire trucks were having difficulty getting through

:00:35. > :00:39.because Maelbeek is an Rue de la Loi which is a one-way street. It was

:00:40. > :00:44.difficult for people to get around the scene. There were some police on

:00:45. > :00:46.the scene tending to the wounded, but it seemed as though there were

:00:47. > :00:56.no ambulances at that point. We can see pictures from inside the

:00:57. > :01:01.tunnel, people walking along inside, and we were speaking to somebody in

:01:02. > :01:06.the adjacent Metro station when the explosion happened and the smoke did

:01:07. > :01:09.travel quickly down the tunnel. Does this explain the confusion,

:01:10. > :01:13.potentially, as to why they might have been explosions at other Metro

:01:14. > :01:19.station is or has indeed been more than one attack? We can confirm the

:01:20. > :01:24.attack on Maelbeek, we had reporters on the ground at another station

:01:25. > :01:29.with reports of an attack and they did not see any sign of an attack at

:01:30. > :01:33.its seams that was a false alarm. As far as I can tell, this was a case

:01:34. > :01:37.of the smoke and the sound travelling through the tunnels but

:01:38. > :01:46.there are no confirmations at this point. We have reporters at stations

:01:47. > :01:49.surrounding the next station from Maelbeek and Schuman station in the

:01:50. > :01:55.opposite direction and there are no confirmed reports. What are the

:01:56. > :02:01.reports on where the explosion was apparently detonated? Under the

:02:02. > :02:07.ground? Closer to the entrance? It was not on the ground level at the

:02:08. > :02:09.top of the station. I could see, I could not see any damage on the

:02:10. > :02:14.outside of the station from both sides of the street so it seems like

:02:15. > :02:18.a was probably down in the station itself but we do not know exactly.

:02:19. > :02:26.Whether it was a platform for further up. Reuters as saying nobody

:02:27. > :02:33.was killed in the explosion inside Brussels Metro carriage. The first

:02:34. > :02:38.report of casualties are not in the Metro station but that does indicate

:02:39. > :02:44.the explosion did happen inside a Metro carriage? And this was

:02:45. > :02:49.rush-hour? Yes, it was a little bit after, it was after nine AEM when

:02:50. > :02:52.this happened so there would have been many people inside the Metro

:02:53. > :02:58.but I think this was a case of people getting lucky. I think once

:02:59. > :03:03.people heard about the Brussels airport attack, there was a feeling

:03:04. > :03:08.that people should not take the Metro from within my office. We were

:03:09. > :03:13.talking about the Metro being dangerous so that would have been

:03:14. > :03:18.helping matters because people were naturally cautious to go underground

:03:19. > :03:29.after these attacks. We can take you live to Brussels and speak to Evan

:03:30. > :03:35.Lamos. An incredibly unsettling time. What happened? I was on my

:03:36. > :03:41.work -- way to work this morning, I had just left the Arts-Loi station

:03:42. > :03:46.and I was between that and Maelbeek when we felt a blast of air inside

:03:47. > :03:50.the Metro and it immediately stopped, the lights turned off and

:03:51. > :03:53.the engine stopped and we heard a message saying that there had been a

:03:54. > :03:59.disturbance on the line. That continued for a few minutes until

:04:00. > :04:04.somebody working for the Metro came to the back and those on the last

:04:05. > :04:09.carriage, they installed a ladder and evacuated us from the Metro onto

:04:10. > :04:14.the tracks, walking back towards the Arts-Loi station and we then went

:04:15. > :04:19.above ground and evacuated. We can hear the sound of a child crying.

:04:20. > :04:26.Otherwise, it seems reasonably calm. What was the feeling? At first,

:04:27. > :04:30.people were quite nervous. A lot of people like myself reading the news

:04:31. > :04:35.of the explosions at the airport on the way to work so immediately when

:04:36. > :04:38.the Metro stop, people were quite concerned observers and a lot of

:04:39. > :04:43.people were chatting and then when the evacuation started one person

:04:44. > :04:47.rushed a little bit, jumped over some seats to exit before somebody

:04:48. > :04:54.else, but for the most part everybody was calm and proceeded to

:04:55. > :04:58.the exit quickly, carefully and in a slow manner. Everyone was walking

:04:59. > :05:05.out and helping each other, a few people needed help with kids and

:05:06. > :05:08.bags. The city is on lockdown, people are told to stay at home, the

:05:09. > :05:13.terror threat is at its highest level. What is a feeling in the

:05:14. > :05:20.city? I have not been in the city for the past hour so I evacuated and

:05:21. > :05:25.walked to my office and immediate sense I got was that people were not

:05:26. > :05:28.sure what was going on. It is working so a lot of people were on

:05:29. > :05:34.the way to the office and maybe the feeling was, what should I do? Where

:05:35. > :05:38.should I go? There was no sense of panic and we saw the police posing

:05:39. > :05:42.of the area that I have not been in the city so I do not know if this

:05:43. > :05:46.has changed. The authorities are telling us that this is what they

:05:47. > :05:49.feared since Paris and they have been preparing for this. Did you

:05:50. > :05:53.expect something like this to happen? Did you go to work thinking

:05:54. > :05:59.this could be the day? I do not think so, immediately after the

:06:00. > :06:06.Paris attack there was some concern but myself and I think many people

:06:07. > :06:09.in Brussels decided that we should not let this affect our lives

:06:10. > :06:13.forever so you get back into the daily routine and things become

:06:14. > :06:16.normal and there have been military guards around Brussels and Metro

:06:17. > :06:20.stations and government buildings and that has become normal. I did

:06:21. > :06:27.not think it was expected by many people or feared. Are you worried

:06:28. > :06:31.about your safety or are you confident the security services will

:06:32. > :06:38.be able to keep you and people in Belgium safe? For the immediate

:06:39. > :06:42.future I am not worried. We are in a safe area that has been locked down

:06:43. > :06:46.by the police and we will see what comes, what messages are conveyed by

:06:47. > :06:51.the government and we will decide at that point whether to worry or not

:06:52. > :07:03.but I am confident they will do the best to their ability. Thank you. We

:07:04. > :07:09.can recapture for you... -- recap. The first two explosions happened at

:07:10. > :07:15.the airport, killing 11 people. And many others severely injured. That

:07:16. > :07:20.is what we are told by medical sources in Brussels. A short-term

:07:21. > :07:25.measure, an attack on the Metro system, killing, we believe, 15

:07:26. > :07:29.people and injuring 55 others in the blast at the Maelbeek Metro station,

:07:30. > :07:35.which is very close to the European institutions in Brussels. The three

:07:36. > :07:39.big real decisions have been closed and all public transport has been

:07:40. > :07:42.shut down. And that is rather worrying for people, who have been

:07:43. > :07:47.told to stay at home with their children and not leave their

:07:48. > :07:51.offices. These blasts, four days after the capture in Brussels of

:07:52. > :07:57.Salah Abdeslam. Investigators say he is one of the men behind those

:07:58. > :07:59.attacks in Paris. The Belgian Prime Minister has been speaking about

:08:00. > :08:03.this, talking a short while ago, he condemned what he called wind and

:08:04. > :08:08.commonly attacks and called on people to come together.

:08:09. > :08:16.TRANSLATION: Our first thoughts are with the victims. With their

:08:17. > :08:27.families. And those who are waiting for information about loved ones.

:08:28. > :08:31.Two attacks happened this morning. One at the airport and the other at

:08:32. > :08:36.the Metro station in Maelbeek and as we speak, and because of security,

:08:37. > :08:48.we are trying to stabilise the situation. Our thoughts are going

:08:49. > :08:51.towards other locations. The first urgent action is to provide

:08:52. > :08:58.treatment for the victims, to evacuate the victims of this attack.

:08:59. > :09:06.Towards various hospitals and we know that probably we are talking

:09:07. > :09:14.about scores of dead, scores of injured people and some of them

:09:15. > :09:19.seriously. The authorities are evaluating the threat and every

:09:20. > :09:23.state to level four and additional measures are being taken as we

:09:24. > :09:33.speak. Military reinforcement is being deployed. Reinforcement over

:09:34. > :09:35.border controls are in action. Especially measures regarding public

:09:36. > :09:44.transport, they are put in place as we speak. I would like to tell you

:09:45. > :09:51.that this tragic moment, this black moment in our country, I would like

:09:52. > :09:57.to call on everybody to show calmness and solidarity. We are

:09:58. > :10:00.facing a challenging time, a difficult and challenging time and

:10:01. > :10:08.we should face up to this challenge by being united, solitary and also

:10:09. > :10:12.by coming together. We will continue to follow this situation minute by

:10:13. > :10:20.minute with different security services, with different rescue

:10:21. > :10:23.services. I will to thank the security services for the work they

:10:24. > :10:30.have done so far. And I would like to tell you once again that we are

:10:31. > :10:38.determined to face the situation and manage the situation and to do with

:10:39. > :10:44.this as best as possible. The Belgian Prime Minister. Gordon

:10:45. > :10:48.Correra joins us. Is it fair to say that the terrorists, we think, are

:10:49. > :10:52.behind these attacks and this demonstrates they have given

:10:53. > :10:59.abilities that extent far beyond Salah Abdeslam? When Salah Abdeslam

:11:00. > :11:03.was arrested the French president said there was a much bigger network

:11:04. > :11:07.behind the Paris attacks and previously was thought. Many more

:11:08. > :11:12.people. What the connection is to the events today is not clear. We

:11:13. > :11:17.should say that. But there is a sense that there might be many more

:11:18. > :11:21.people connected, any more networks and previously understood. And the

:11:22. > :11:25.authorities have got a struggle because of the flow of people out to

:11:26. > :11:28.Iraq and Syria and the return of many of them back, some of them

:11:29. > :11:34.perhaps undetected, and the threat they might pose. If this is the work

:11:35. > :11:39.of Islamic State, where might we get some claim of responsible to? With

:11:40. > :11:44.Paris we had that within one day, it was longer to get video tape. It is

:11:45. > :11:50.not clear if this was a network directly collected -- connected to

:11:51. > :11:54.Salah Abdeslam, it is possible it was and this is hypothetical but you

:11:55. > :11:59.can imagine that him having been arrested on Friday, suddenly others

:12:00. > :12:02.connected to him realise the or onto them, they fear that he is perhaps

:12:03. > :12:06.talking and they quickly decide to carry out an attack. But as

:12:07. > :12:11.possible, we do not know for sure, but as one scenario but this could

:12:12. > :12:14.be another unconnected group. The 40s will be trying to work that out

:12:15. > :12:18.quickly and the other urgent thing to understand is, we think there was

:12:19. > :12:25.one suicide bomber at the airport but harmony others, could they pose

:12:26. > :12:28.a threat, if you are leaving bombs in places rather than being suicide

:12:29. > :12:36.bombers? And is the issue of potential follow-on attacks. Belgium

:12:37. > :12:40.on the maximum state of alert, is it surprisingly that was not like that

:12:41. > :12:43.already given that 24 hours ago authorities said they believed those

:12:44. > :12:46.claims from Salah Abdeslam that further attacks planned and they

:12:47. > :12:52.were concerned, publicly said there might be some sort of revenge pawn

:12:53. > :12:55.to? There have been concerns around Belgium, straight after Paris the

:12:56. > :12:59.city were shot down, there were fears of gun attacks, there have

:13:00. > :13:05.been many alerts since then. Any lock downs, any fears of potential

:13:06. > :13:12.attacks. The city of Brussels and Belgium has been on edge, it has

:13:13. > :13:15.been worried about attacks and in the wake of that arrest on Friday of

:13:16. > :13:20.Salah Abdeslam, we still do not know if that was the trigger but it is

:13:21. > :13:24.quite possible that has been the reason for people to attack, not

:13:25. > :13:29.perhaps for revenge but perhaps of a few they might be caught. It was a

:13:30. > :13:32.soft target at the airport? What we're hearing is this happened

:13:33. > :13:38.before any security checks in the public job of area happened and that

:13:39. > :13:42.will be a huge concern for people and airport operators around the

:13:43. > :13:47.world? An issue with airports is was tight security in some places, once

:13:48. > :13:51.you go through check-in and you have the metal detector and other checks,

:13:52. > :13:54.but where do you place the security at airports because at the moment

:13:55. > :13:59.there is relatively it'll add the check-in point but if you try to

:14:00. > :14:02.secure the entrance, you potentially have all of those people waiting

:14:03. > :14:07.outside the airport and you simply displace the point of danger to just

:14:08. > :14:09.outside, where people might have to queue to get in through metal

:14:10. > :14:15.detectors or other potential bomb sniffing technology. There is a

:14:16. > :14:22.question about airport security. Where do you place the perimeter?

:14:23. > :14:27.Some of the applications for travellers, which can be quite

:14:28. > :14:30.severe. This might lead to questions about that but the solutions are not

:14:31. > :14:36.straightforward. If we look at the attack on the Metro as well, in

:14:37. > :14:42.Brussels are seeing this concentration on transport hubs? The

:14:43. > :14:45.Metro is another soft target, the challenges, how much can you do in

:14:46. > :14:50.terms of metal and explosive detection at every Metro station?

:14:51. > :14:53.This is a huge obligation for transport and that leaves them as a

:14:54. > :14:59.vulnerable place and we have large gatherings of people which can be

:15:00. > :15:04.hit. It is a pattern since Paris, Paris was very notable in the way

:15:05. > :15:08.that Islamic State sent people to strike at people at concert tours

:15:09. > :15:15.and football matches and soft targets. Not military, not even

:15:16. > :15:19.police targets, which we had seen before from so-called Islamic State.

:15:20. > :15:23.But clearly going for a maximum civilian casualties. Like so much

:15:24. > :15:27.fun. We have had reaction from readers around Europe. Francois

:15:28. > :15:31.Hollande says this is a terror attack that has struck the whole of

:15:32. > :15:36.Europe. Through the attacks in Brussels, the whole of Europe has

:15:37. > :15:40.been hurting. He urges everybody to take vital steps in the face of

:15:41. > :15:44.this. When that many more troops have been deployed in France as

:15:45. > :15:45.well. They're expecting a statement from the President of France any

:15:46. > :15:53.minute. We will bring that to you. Let's have a look at how and when

:15:54. > :16:05.the events unfolded in Brussels. At around 07:20GMT those two

:16:06. > :16:07.explosions took place Reports have described

:16:08. > :16:09.chaotic scenes there. Both explosions happened

:16:10. > :16:12.at the Zaventem airport in departure area, in areas busy with people

:16:13. > :16:16.queuing to check in their luggage. At 07:50GMT airport officials

:16:17. > :16:20.confirmed explosions and people started evacuating

:16:21. > :16:28.the airport building. An hour later at around 8:50GMT

:16:29. > :16:30.there was another explosion Maelbeek metro station -

:16:31. > :16:33.as we've been saying it's close Several people have

:16:34. > :16:39.been killed or injured. Latest reports on the number

:16:40. > :16:42.casualties is that nearly 26 people have been killed and

:16:43. > :16:50.around 50 injured. Both airport and metro system have

:16:51. > :16:52.been closed as well. All public transport

:16:53. > :16:58.there shut down. Let's go to Paris where the

:16:59. > :17:03.president Francois Hollande is about to give an address. TRANSLATION:

:17:04. > :17:05.These attacks have been perpetrated which left a number of people dead,

:17:06. > :17:27.and dozens of people injured. .. The challenge, and for the

:17:28. > :17:31.families who are worried about their loved ones, our thoughts are with

:17:32. > :17:37.them and we share their pain. The terrorists have struck Belgium, but

:17:38. > :17:44.it is Europe that has been targeted, it is the whole world that is

:17:45. > :17:51.concerned with this. We should take conscience of the magnitude and the

:17:52. > :18:01.gravity of the terrorist threat, these attacks follow others, Paris

:18:02. > :18:10.was particularly last year, last January, and in November. Other

:18:11. > :18:19.continents have felt the same pain, especially in Africa. We are facing

:18:20. > :18:24.a global threat, which necessitates and requires a global response.

:18:25. > :18:32.France and Belgium are linked in the horror that we are sharing once

:18:33. > :18:36.again. And I have reassured the Belgian government that we will give

:18:37. > :18:45.them our full support and we will provide them all of the necessary

:18:46. > :18:49.means, and war against terrorists should be carried out throughout

:18:50. > :18:55.Europe using the same necessary means, and especially intelligence

:18:56. > :19:01.information. Once again, we should make sure that the decisions are

:19:02. > :19:06.effectively put in place. We should react on an international level.

:19:07. > :19:11.This is what France has been doing within the coalition in Syria and

:19:12. > :19:23.Iraq. This is what France is doing in Africa. Other countries should

:19:24. > :19:30.also be committed and engaged on an international level. We should take

:19:31. > :19:36.this war against terrorists by showing the necessary vigilance, and

:19:37. > :19:43.this is why today the French government has taken measures to

:19:44. > :19:53.consolidate, measures along the borders and also the presence of

:19:54. > :20:01.gendarme and military, at all airports and railway stations. This

:20:02. > :20:06.war against terrorism should be taken in a calm, lucid and

:20:07. > :20:14.determined way because it will be a long war. We should put in place all

:20:15. > :20:21.of this, all of these means that are available, and that is what we have

:20:22. > :20:26.been doing. Like having legislative means, and we should be efficient

:20:27. > :20:31.and respectful of liberties. And we should also make sure that our unity

:20:32. > :20:38.is not harmed, unity on a European level. And I can also talk about

:20:39. > :20:45.unity globally and countries who would like to act against terrorism,

:20:46. > :20:52.but the most important unity is on a national level and everyone should

:20:53. > :21:01.be conscious that we should unite and be cohesive and we should show

:21:02. > :21:06.solidarity. Today we are with Belgium, yesterday it is towards

:21:07. > :21:08.France that other countries expressed their solidarity and

:21:09. > :21:14.conscience, and we are concerned and that is why at the beginning of this

:21:15. > :21:20.meeting, as we think about the investments that we can provide to

:21:21. > :21:28.our country and Europe, we should be here with you. But also we should be

:21:29. > :21:34.aware of the subject, there would be no economic development, there would

:21:35. > :21:40.be no endurable investment, if there is no security. And the main element

:21:41. > :21:48.of Security, the element of security is also to attract investment. We

:21:49. > :21:53.would like to ensure you that all means have been taken in France and

:21:54. > :22:05.at a wider level in Europe. And on behalf of France, and I can assure

:22:06. > :22:12.you personally, that you can invest with all lucidity in France, but

:22:13. > :22:16.also in our security. Thank you. Now, I am going to talk about

:22:17. > :22:23.questions that are of primary concern to you. You are 30

:22:24. > :22:28.enterprises from various geographic regions. We are meeting here to

:22:29. > :22:35.discuss the attractiveness of investment. For over two years,

:22:36. > :22:41.every six months, we meet here on a regular basis to evaluate what we

:22:42. > :22:48.have done will stop the government of France and you as investors and

:22:49. > :22:57.also to hear some of your proposals and suggestions which can actually

:22:58. > :23:04.improve our attraction. And investment. I would like to show

:23:05. > :23:09.that we are listening to you. And a number of measures have been taken,

:23:10. > :23:17.especially about the fiscal side of companies and personnel. STUDIO:

:23:18. > :23:20.President Francois Hollande reassuring the Belgian government

:23:21. > :23:23.that they will provide all necessary means to the Belgian government in

:23:24. > :23:28.the war against terrorism and he said the war should be carried out

:23:29. > :23:31.throughout Europe with an emphasis on intelligence sharing. Facing a

:23:32. > :23:36.global threat, he said, the world has to tackle that and we must unite

:23:37. > :23:43.and show solidarity. France is still in a state of emergency after

:23:44. > :23:46.November 13 attacks. One other line is that the Eiffel Tower will be lit

:23:47. > :23:52.up in the colours of the Belgian flag as a mark of solidarity. You

:23:53. > :23:58.are watching a BBC News special as the Belgian capital has been hit by

:23:59. > :24:04.multiple bomb attacks targeting the main airport and a Metro station. At

:24:05. > :24:09.least one is thought to be a suicide bomb. The Belgian Prime Minister

:24:10. > :24:13.Charles Michel has said many people are thought to have been injured. We

:24:14. > :24:18.know that at least 26 people have been killed. He called it a black

:24:19. > :24:23.day for his nation. It is thought 11 people were killed in the check-in

:24:24. > :24:28.area and 30 injured. An hour later and another explosion at Maelbeek

:24:29. > :24:32.Metro station in the City close to the main parliament buildings, 15

:24:33. > :24:39.people are confirmed to have been killed and 50 others wounded. The

:24:40. > :24:44.schools, Metro and rail services have all been closed and Eurostar

:24:45. > :24:49.trains have been halted. The capital was already on a state of high alert

:24:50. > :24:52.following the arrest of Paris Terror suspect Salah Abdeslam in the City

:24:53. > :24:56.last week. The Belgian Prime Minister is calling for calm and

:24:57. > :25:00.solidarity and he said at a news conference short while ago that he

:25:01. > :25:07.would send 200 extra troops to the capital. He said, this was the

:25:08. > :25:16.attack that we'll was feared. Let's point you to the website and the BBC

:25:17. > :25:19.News app, live updates as they happen. All of our correspondents

:25:20. > :25:24.are tweeting and eyewitnesses as well. We have maps explaining

:25:25. > :25:29.exactly where these attacks took place and also news from around

:25:30. > :25:32.Europe about how various airports are responding and also messages of

:25:33. > :25:37.solidarity from various leaders. That is all there on the website. We

:25:38. > :25:43.are now joined by Matthew Henman, the head of IHS Jane's terrorism and

:25:44. > :25:45.insurgency centre, he joins us from central London. Thank you for

:25:46. > :25:51.joining us. Hearing what we have heard about the relative freedom of

:25:52. > :25:57.movement land side at Brussels airport, our use of prized it was a

:25:58. > :26:01.target? No, it's not as a prize at all, militant Islamist groups over

:26:02. > :26:05.the past months in Europe have shown their commitment and dedication to

:26:06. > :26:08.striking targets which are full of civilians and foreign nationals. To

:26:09. > :26:14.have maximum impact from their attacks. Do you think there will be

:26:15. > :26:20.a pretty swift response now in terms of airport security especially land

:26:21. > :26:24.side? I think the fact that the check-in and departures section was

:26:25. > :26:29.attacked which is obviously relatively unsecured, compared to

:26:30. > :26:32.the proper departure lounges means that there will be an intensified

:26:33. > :26:37.security effort at airports across Europe in response to the attack. As

:26:38. > :26:41.you already mentioned, it will be very difficult to maintain over the

:26:42. > :26:45.long-term in terms of cost and disruption implications. In the

:26:46. > :26:50.immediate term it is a clear security priority. We were chatting

:26:51. > :26:53.with our security correspondent short while ago about the

:26:54. > :26:58.capabilities of terror groups like Isis in Belgium, and the authorities

:26:59. > :27:01.thought with the arrest of Salah Abdeslam that they had turned a

:27:02. > :27:10.corner this apparently demonstrates that that was not the case.

:27:11. > :27:13.Absolutely. The fact that firstly, the wider logistics and facilitation

:27:14. > :27:17.network that supported the Paris attackers in November, the fact that

:27:18. > :27:21.they were still at large, demonstrated by the fact that Salah

:27:22. > :27:25.Abdeslam was able to remain at large for almost four months before he was

:27:26. > :27:28.arrested, indicates that there is a much wider network in place in

:27:29. > :27:33.Western Europe. There are likely more cells who are either preparing

:27:34. > :27:37.all ready to carry out attacks like we have seen in Brussels this

:27:38. > :27:40.morning. Unfortunately until that wider network is rolled up and

:27:41. > :27:46.destroyed by security services we are likely to see more attacks of

:27:47. > :27:50.this kind. What can you tell us about coming in broader terms,

:27:51. > :27:57.Belgium, these are the individuals who may have left the country and

:27:58. > :28:00.travelled to places like Syria and come back with the intention of

:28:01. > :28:04.carrying out attacks because Belgium and Brussels does seem to have been

:28:05. > :28:09.a particular target? Well, it has been well documented that out of all

:28:10. > :28:13.of the EU countries Brussels has by far the largest proportion of

:28:14. > :28:17.foreign fighters travelling to Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of fighters have

:28:18. > :28:21.travelled there, received training and combat experience at the hands

:28:22. > :28:26.of Islamic State. They have likely been prepared to return to their

:28:27. > :28:29.country to launch operations there. Belgium is particularly

:28:30. > :28:32.strategically situated in that sense in that it is relatively easy for

:28:33. > :28:37.militants to slip across borders into different countries to launch

:28:38. > :28:42.attacks, and you have a situation in areas Brussels like Molenbeek which

:28:43. > :28:47.are particularly difficult was a curative services to penetrate and

:28:48. > :28:52.successfully root out these individuals. We know that the

:28:53. > :28:57.security services, not just in Belgium but France, Germany, the UK,

:28:58. > :29:00.are particularly stretched in terms of resources and capabilities and in

:29:01. > :29:05.terms of tracking individuals who are returning from Iraq and Syria.

:29:06. > :29:11.When you have a country like Belgium that is comparatively small, it has

:29:12. > :29:14.a smaller budget for tracking people returning, combined with a large

:29:15. > :29:20.flow of people coming back from Syria and Iraq, that is a very

:29:21. > :29:24.dangerous situation indeed. Matthew Henman from IHS Jane's terrorism and

:29:25. > :29:28.insurgency centre, thank you very much. A reminder of the breaking

:29:29. > :29:33.news today from Brussels, three explosions have killed 26 people in

:29:34. > :29:43.the capital, two blasts targeted the main airport one of them was carried

:29:44. > :29:48.out by a suicide bomber. It was a scene of chaos and chaos. Huge panic

:29:49. > :29:59.at the airport when those explosions went off. Let's talk to Odetta Islam

:30:00. > :30:07.who was at the airport this morning. What happened? We were just having

:30:08. > :30:14.breakfast. We were with my mum. Suddenly there was an explosion on

:30:15. > :30:22.our right. And pieces of wall started to fall. Everybody started

:30:23. > :30:28.running. So did we. Within five or ten seconds there was a second blast

:30:29. > :30:35.on the left. It was full of smoke and we did not really know where to

:30:36. > :30:44.go. We just don't in the middle. I think for about five minutes. But

:30:45. > :30:50.there was nobody to help, who came to help. There was no guidance or

:30:51. > :30:52.anything. There was smoke there and we could not breathe and that was

:30:53. > :30:57.the moment we actually thought we had to go out.

:30:58. > :31:07.It must have been frightening for you? It was. I was not only their

:31:08. > :31:12.with my mother, my whole family. My father and my brothers also. Did you

:31:13. > :31:19.see people who had been killed and injured? Yes, we saw people who are

:31:20. > :31:24.really injured. I saw a mother with a newborn baby, a mother with two

:31:25. > :31:37.little children, a man lying on the floor. Covered in blood. Was a lot

:31:38. > :31:40.of smoke and glass? There was a lot of smoke so we could not see

:31:41. > :31:49.anything at the beginning. We did see the glass. But there was a lot

:31:50. > :32:00.of dust. And also, parts of the wall falling down. Was anybody offering

:32:01. > :32:08.to help? Not from inside, everybody was in a state of shock and there

:32:09. > :32:15.was nobody from security so we actually had to find our own way

:32:16. > :32:23.outside. Did people realise that it was a bomb? Yes. Well, in the

:32:24. > :32:27.beginning we did not but then when the second explosion took place we

:32:28. > :32:37.did know it was a bomb and that there could be more. Did that make

:32:38. > :32:43.people... Was also a sense of panic and worry that there might be

:32:44. > :32:53.another bomb? Yes. Of course. Definitely in my mind. There were

:32:54. > :33:00.people trying to hide under a desk or in a room. Trying to find

:33:01. > :33:08.somewhere to hide. You are safe now at home in Antwerp? Yes, back on.

:33:09. > :33:15.The journey was one and a half hours. Thank you for telling us what

:33:16. > :33:24.you went through. Mina Al-Lami is an expert on jihadi media and joins us.

:33:25. > :33:29.What sort of chatter have you seen on jihadi media about this? So

:33:30. > :33:33.further has been no jihadist claim of responsibility for the Brussels

:33:34. > :33:39.attacks and in the absence of that, we look at the chatter, the tweets

:33:40. > :33:48.of supporters of jihadist group is, be it Al-Qaeda its rival, Islamic

:33:49. > :33:53.State. While ISO is not claimed the attack, supporters have been in

:33:54. > :33:58.celebration on Twitter, sharing images and heavily twitching under

:33:59. > :34:03.an Arabic language hashtag that translates as Brussels under fire.

:34:04. > :34:09.They have used a similar hashtag, Paris under fire. During the Paris

:34:10. > :34:17.attacks. They seem to at least believe, strongly believe, that it

:34:18. > :34:23.is behind this. I wonder how we can relate this in terms of the media

:34:24. > :34:27.you are monitoring to the arrest and capture of Salah Abdeslam in a few

:34:28. > :34:35.days ago? Because there has been speculation that this was some high

:34:36. > :34:40.retribution for that and perhaps followers of his had put forward

:34:41. > :34:44.some attacks were planning because he was captured rather than an act

:34:45. > :34:51.of retribution. Any sense of what is going on? This was also a key line

:34:52. > :34:55.in the reaction, that this was revenge for the arrest of Salah

:34:56. > :34:59.Abdeslam. This could not have been a very impulsive reaction because the

:35:00. > :35:05.attacks clearly took planning and coordination. Especially with

:35:06. > :35:09.infiltration, the attack was carried out at the airport and the Metro,

:35:10. > :35:13.with tight security, so it could not have been impulsive but they seem to

:35:14. > :35:18.believe it was in some way connected to the address of a groovy arrest.

:35:19. > :35:24.Others have said that this was in retribution for the 19th of March US

:35:25. > :35:31.air strikes on the University so that was another line with IS

:35:32. > :35:38.supporters can to bidding. If the group is indeed behind this, this is

:35:39. > :35:41.likely to delay the claim of responsibility until everything has

:35:42. > :35:45.been concluded. I mean, but there are no further attacks planned and

:35:46. > :35:51.that the operatives have either been killed or have escaped. This is what

:35:52. > :35:56.it did for the Paris attacks so until everything is concluded, Isis

:35:57. > :36:00.is unlikely to put out any claim. Thank you for that.

:36:01. > :36:03.With me is Julia Ebner, who's from the Qulliam Foundation,

:36:04. > :36:05.a think-tank which campaigns against radicalisation.

:36:06. > :36:15.We're just hearing that IS supporters are cheering about what

:36:16. > :36:18.happened today in Brussels. Do you think this attack is connected to

:36:19. > :36:22.what we have seen with Salah Abdeslam? Of course, it has not been

:36:23. > :36:28.confirmed but we do think it is highly likely that it was led by

:36:29. > :36:33.splinter cells of Isis, especially that it came four days after the

:36:34. > :36:37.abreast of Salah Abdeslam and that he has leaked a lot of information,

:36:38. > :36:43.he has been described as a gold mine for information. It seems likely

:36:44. > :36:49.that his network, which certainly exists within Brussels and

:36:50. > :36:54.Molenbeek, has been busy during the last few days preparing something.

:36:55. > :36:59.And panicking that they could feel the noose tightening? He was giving

:37:00. > :37:05.away information? Right. Are you concerned that this was not stopped.

:37:06. > :37:09.The authorities were on high alert, expecting something like this, yet

:37:10. > :37:14.were not able to stop it? It is definitely very alarming to see that

:37:15. > :37:20.at the most secure areas, this busy biggest airport in Belgium, it was

:37:21. > :37:27.attacked. And the European quarter in Brussels, which has seen very

:37:28. > :37:33.tight security over the past few months, that it is very alarming

:37:34. > :37:37.that not more has been done to prevent this. What is going wrong in

:37:38. > :37:41.terms of how the security services are operating? And we're not seeing

:37:42. > :37:47.enough cooperation between different countries? I think the cooperation

:37:48. > :37:52.between the security forces in Belgium and France has really been

:37:53. > :37:56.increased and enhanced in the last few months, since Charlie Hebdo, but

:37:57. > :38:03.there are still problems that these agencies are facing and there is a

:38:04. > :38:06.lack of capacity. It is not the fault of the security agencies, they

:38:07. > :38:13.also lack the personnel to be secure. What about the bigger

:38:14. > :38:19.question, about radicalisation in Belgium and across Europe? Brussels

:38:20. > :38:26.is often called a jihadist hotbed. Is enough being done? Certainly not.

:38:27. > :38:30.These attacks show us that since we do not have the capacity to properly

:38:31. > :38:37.secure these places, we need to work closer on preventing these attacks

:38:38. > :38:45.from happening and that is by working on a civil society level, a

:38:46. > :38:49.community approach and going into areas of Molenbeek, we can see

:38:50. > :38:53.radicalisation thriving because of grievances that exist, because of

:38:54. > :39:00.social economic grievances and other grievances, issues of integration

:39:01. > :39:06.have not been addressed so we need a full spectrum approach to address

:39:07. > :39:11.these. Thank you for joining us. Katya Adler is on the streets of

:39:12. > :39:16.Brussels and has sent us this report.

:39:17. > :39:21.Brussels is on Highland. This morning, three explosions have been

:39:22. > :39:25.confirmed by the Belgian authorities as terrorist attacks. Two in the

:39:26. > :39:31.rustling airport and one of them might in the heart of the European

:39:32. > :39:35.Union headquarters at a Metro station around the corner from here.

:39:36. > :39:39.Helicopters are circling overhead, ambulances rushing to the scene and

:39:40. > :39:43.at least one carriage exploded completely. The number of casualties

:39:44. > :39:47.has not yet been confirmed officially. This is a huge worry for

:39:48. > :39:51.the people of Belgium and an embarrassment for the Belgian

:39:52. > :39:54.authorities. In four days ago there were salivating that they had

:39:55. > :39:59.finally captured the most wanted man linked to the Paris attacks will

:40:00. > :40:02.stampede to the authorities he had been planning attacks in Belgium and

:40:03. > :40:05.no one guessed they would happened today and at rush-hour, where they

:40:06. > :40:15.could strike the most people possible. Katya Adler on the streets

:40:16. > :40:18.of Brussels. Claude is a Labour MEP and chair of the Justice and home

:40:19. > :40:21.affairs committee in the European Parliament. It was trying to make

:40:22. > :40:28.his way to Brussels but the train was cancelled. The scale of this

:40:29. > :40:32.devastation is extraordinary. That is the first thing to say, our

:40:33. > :40:36.sympathies are with all of the victims and the numbers seem to be

:40:37. > :40:39.going up as we speak. And the casually figures seem to be going up

:40:40. > :40:44.so that is a first thing. We heard earlier from one of my colleagues

:40:45. > :40:50.inside the building, Richard Ashcroft, who said things are very

:40:51. > :40:54.much on lockdown. For a medium-sized city like Brussels, this is

:40:55. > :41:02.extraordinary. We were not on the highest level of alert. We thought

:41:03. > :41:11.that was an issue. There will be visible changes on the streets. The

:41:12. > :41:16.airport, for people who know it, it is very public as you go in and for

:41:17. > :41:19.anyone who understands that space will understand what the devastation

:41:20. > :41:23.would have been like for different people and it is the same with the

:41:24. > :41:30.Metro area. It is very shocking to hear about this. Let me just bring

:41:31. > :41:33.you an update on the exact location of the explosions in the airport.

:41:34. > :41:38.American Airlines say it has additional clarity across the

:41:39. > :41:42.explosions were reported to have been centred on their departure area

:41:43. > :41:51.of Brussels airport. American Airlines say the word two separate

:41:52. > :42:00.explosions, zone three and 11 and we are in zone eight. One of those

:42:01. > :42:03.explosions was a suicide bomber. Claude, you are talking about the

:42:04. > :42:11.security lockdown that there is in Brussels. Potentially, that could be

:42:12. > :42:13.open-ended? We have seen a security lockdown in Brussels before and

:42:14. > :42:18.after the Paris attacks and it went on for some time. There will be some

:42:19. > :42:23.visible differences lie because of the scale of this attack. It is well

:42:24. > :42:30.known in Brussels because -- that we have these highest concentration of

:42:31. > :42:37.so-called foreign fighters. This has been an ongoing issue. And because

:42:38. > :42:42.of the scale of this attack, there will be more visible signs of

:42:43. > :42:46.security, although there were very visible signs already in public

:42:47. > :42:54.places, soldiers on the streets and so on and at public buildings. That

:42:55. > :42:57.was already the case. There will be more marked signs of this. There was

:42:58. > :43:03.already heightened intelligence sharing going on so many of these

:43:04. > :43:07.heightened elements were already happening but there will be a much

:43:08. > :43:11.higher scale, bigger volume of soldiers being brought in to

:43:12. > :43:18.Brussels. That has already been announced. The Labour MEPs speaking

:43:19. > :43:25.to Joanna Gosling. The latest we're hearing from Belgian capital... It

:43:26. > :43:29.is on lockdown, people are told to stay at home after a series of

:43:30. > :43:34.deadly attacks across the city and we're hearing the 26 people have

:43:35. > :43:38.been killed, many injured and the threat level across the country has

:43:39. > :43:43.been raised to maximum. Dozens injured in those explosions, earlier

:43:44. > :43:48.today we have heard from the Belgian Prime Minister calling this a black

:43:49. > :43:54.day for the country. As you look at these images of people escaping from

:43:55. > :44:03.the Metro station. Horrendous scenes and at the airport today. Charles

:44:04. > :44:07.Michel calling for solidarity in the face of these attacks and sending

:44:08. > :44:14.200 additional troops to the Belgian capital and we have also heard from

:44:15. > :44:19.the French president offering France's support and all necessary

:44:20. > :44:23.means to try to tackle terrorism. He said it was a war against terror

:44:24. > :44:27.that had to be fought across Europe at the very best of intelligence

:44:28. > :44:33.sharing. The first exposure and is targeted the airport. Terrible scene

:44:34. > :44:35.at the moment, the windows shattered and ceiling panels have collapsed

:44:36. > :44:43.onto the floor under was a huge amount of chaos and confusion. What

:44:44. > :44:47.you are seeing is the Metro station, right beside those EU institutions

:44:48. > :44:50.and after those attacks on the airport there was an explosion there

:44:51. > :44:54.and you can see people desperately trying to get out of the Metro

:44:55. > :45:01.carriage and walking down the line to another station, being taken to

:45:02. > :45:04.safety. And all other stations, the real decisions in Brussels have been

:45:05. > :45:09.closed and public transport across the city has shut down. Eurostar is

:45:10. > :45:15.not running, it feels like the city is on lockdown. And Belgian is on

:45:16. > :45:21.the maximum alert for security. It had not been until today. Despite

:45:22. > :45:22.the arrest in a few days ago of the chief Paris attack suspect, Salah

:45:23. > :45:31.Abdeslam. Hello, I'm Lucy Hockings you're

:45:32. > :45:33.watching a BBC News Special on our continuing coverage

:45:34. > :45:35.of the situation in Brussels. The Belgian capital is hit

:45:36. > :45:40.by a series of attacks killing At least 11 people are killed

:45:41. > :45:46.at Brussels international airport as two explosions tore

:45:47. > :45:52.through the departures hall. Scores of people were injured

:45:53. > :46:03.after the ceiling caved I heard one shot fired followed by

:46:04. > :46:10.people shouting in Arabic, and then a huge explosion. People started

:46:11. > :46:15.fleeing to the lifts and escalators. About half an hour later during rush

:46:16. > :46:19.hour another explosion on the Metro in the City centre, 15 people are

:46:20. > :46:22.believed to have been killed. We will bring you the latest live from

:46:23. > :46:27.Brussels where the threat level is at maximum and people have been told

:46:28. > :46:31.to stay where they are. The Belgian Prime Minister has condemned what he

:46:32. > :46:36.called blind and cowardly attacks. This tragic and black moment in our

:46:37. > :46:38.country, like never before I would call on everybody to show calmness

:46:39. > :46:58.and solidarity. You are watching a BBC News Special

:46:59. > :47:01.as the Belgian capital Brussels has been hit by multiple bomb attacks,

:47:02. > :47:03.targeting the main airport At least one is thought to have

:47:04. > :47:08.been a suicide bomb. The Belgian Prime Minister Charles

:47:09. > :47:12.Michel says many people have been killed or wounded -

:47:13. > :47:15.at least 26 people are known He called it a black

:47:16. > :47:19.day for his nation. There were chaotic scenes

:47:20. > :47:23.at Brussels Zaventem airport - at least 11 people were killed

:47:24. > :47:26.and more than 30 injured Around an hour later,

:47:27. > :47:35.another blast at Maalbeek metro in the centre of the city -

:47:36. > :47:37.close to the European Parliament 15 people are reported to have died

:47:38. > :47:41.- many more are injured. People have been told to stay

:47:42. > :47:44.inside, the metro and rail services are closed, and all Eurostar

:47:45. > :47:46.trains have been halted. The Belgian capital was already

:47:47. > :47:49.on a state of high alert following the arrest of Paris terror

:47:50. > :48:10.attack suspect Salah Abdeslam At the airport they ran for their

:48:11. > :48:16.lives. Inside, what was once a departure lounge in seconds was

:48:17. > :48:20.transformed into a place of death. Some called friends or family,

:48:21. > :48:29.others just sat, struck by the horror. Two explosions tore through

:48:30. > :48:34.the building. Blowing out the windows, and bringing part of the

:48:35. > :48:37.roof down. There was a big explosion, at first we thought it

:48:38. > :48:43.was a billboard falling down or something. It was like within 20

:48:44. > :48:52.centimetres of me, a big explosion, the second one. I just fell away. I

:48:53. > :48:58.thought I was hurt, I thought I had been hit. There were two people

:48:59. > :49:02.working in the airport and they told me to just go inside and they locked

:49:03. > :49:14.the door. And behind a little gap I saw a soldier pulling away our body.

:49:15. > :49:19.-- a body. I hope he was not dead. On guard, the army and police

:49:20. > :49:27.watching over passengers evacuated from the bombed airport as the

:49:28. > :49:32.mayhem of the morning was detailed. There was one gunshot after the

:49:33. > :49:35.first explosion said this witness, and one man speaking Arabic

:49:36. > :49:41.afterwards. And I heard a boom, an enormous explosion. The attacks

:49:42. > :49:50.brought condemnation from the Belgian Prime Minister. Our country

:49:51. > :49:57.and our citizens have been struck by attacks, blind attacks, violent and

:49:58. > :50:05.cowardly. And our first thoughts are with the victims, with their

:50:06. > :50:13.families,... And underground, terror for morning travellers. A bomb on a

:50:14. > :50:16.Metro train right in the heart of the EU quarter of Brussels, left

:50:17. > :50:23.more than a dozen passengers dead and travellers struggling through

:50:24. > :50:29.smoke-filled tunnels. The bombing was just minutes from the European

:50:30. > :50:35.Parliament and the Commission. It came in a shower. The emergency

:50:36. > :50:43.services treated the injured by the roadside. As people staggered from

:50:44. > :50:49.the station. The blast was heard and felt in stations down the line. Yes,

:50:50. > :51:01.there was a loud muffled third. It was very audible. -- thud. There is

:51:02. > :51:07.so much construction all the time that it's hard to discern one noise

:51:08. > :51:11.from another. The soldiers who are pretty much on hand in this area

:51:12. > :51:15.these days were very quick to evacuate the building. That's when

:51:16. > :51:20.people started running from the scene. Lots of people crying. There

:51:21. > :51:26.was a lot of confusion. Brussels is on the highest state of alert. The

:51:27. > :51:31.military has sent reinforcements. Public transport has ceased in

:51:32. > :51:35.Europe's capital, flights suspended, the Eurostar halted. Europe, says

:51:36. > :51:44.the French Prime Minister, is at war. It is also in shock and

:51:45. > :51:47.mourning. We have heard already from the Belgian Prime Minister and also

:51:48. > :51:51.the French president and just to tell you we will hear from the

:51:52. > :51:55.British Prime Minister David Cameron within the next short while about

:51:56. > :51:59.the attacks in Brussels. One other line to bring you from the

:52:00. > :52:03.governments here, the British government's emergency Cobra

:52:04. > :52:10.committee, one Briton was injured in the attack in Brussels but no

:52:11. > :52:14.British fatalities. This is triggering security alerts across

:52:15. > :52:17.Europe but the latest we heard from Belgium about the ongoing operation

:52:18. > :52:24.is that house searches are ongoing in the area right around Brussels,

:52:25. > :52:32.and this is coming in from the public broadcaster RTBF. Security is

:52:33. > :52:36.tight and the entire City locked down. The first explosions went off

:52:37. > :52:42.at the Zaventem airport in Brussels prompting hundreds of people to

:52:43. > :52:45.flee. One witness said they ran towards the second larger blast.

:52:46. > :52:51.These were some of the people caught up in the evacuation this morning.

:52:52. > :53:04.You felt the explosion? Yes, I felt it and glass went over my side.

:53:05. > :53:19.We only saw some smashed windows. We did not get any information. Did you

:53:20. > :53:23.see or hear the explosion? No, but I walked through a lot of stuff, smoke

:53:24. > :53:28.and water dripping from the ceiling. We had to walk through puddles. And

:53:29. > :53:31.we were evacuated. I was just waiting for my suitcase and then

:53:32. > :53:36.some buddy said over the loudspeakers, this is an evacuation.

:53:37. > :53:44.We were just taken outside of that place. Let's go live to Brussels and

:53:45. > :53:49.talk to our correspondent Chris Morris. These attacks almost

:53:50. > :53:51.simultaneously targeting the airport, Metro station and the

:53:52. > :53:56.European institutions of course because one of the Metro stations

:53:57. > :54:01.was very close to many of the European buildings. Effectively, the

:54:02. > :54:05.City is on lockdown, isn't it? Yes, I have just cycled through parts of

:54:06. > :54:09.the City and some people are going about their business under heavy

:54:10. > :54:15.security everywhere. Armed police and soldiers on the streets and the

:54:16. > :54:21.area close to our office has now been blocked off, particularly

:54:22. > :54:25.because Maelbeek station is if -- is a few hundred metres away from where

:54:26. > :54:28.David Cameron and the other EU leaders were meeting for the

:54:29. > :54:32.European summit last Thursday and Friday. It was just as the summit

:54:33. > :54:37.was coming to an end that the news broke that the wanted suspect from

:54:38. > :54:42.the Paris attacks Salah Abdeslam had been captured here in Brussels. One

:54:43. > :54:47.thing that will be very disturbing to the authorities was that if this

:54:48. > :54:50.was a response to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, how quickly the

:54:51. > :54:55.cells of people who have done this have been able to respond, it shows

:54:56. > :54:58.you how prepared they were for an attack and European security

:54:59. > :55:02.officials have been bracing themselves for weeks for the

:55:03. > :55:05.possibility or even probability of another attack somewhere. If this is

:55:06. > :55:09.to be seen as a response to the arrest I think the speed with which

:55:10. > :55:11.they were able to strike is really quite disturbing for those charged

:55:12. > :55:25.with the security in our big cities. As we

:55:26. > :55:27.speak to you we are seeing the latest pictures we are receiving

:55:28. > :55:30.from the airport in the immediate aftermath of those explosions, the

:55:31. > :55:31.air is filled with dust, you can see luggage abandoned on trolleys.

:55:32. > :55:36.Clearly reflecting the chaos that must have unfolded in the moments

:55:37. > :55:42.right after those explosions. Some people running away. You were

:55:43. > :55:48.reflecting on how difficult this must be for the authorities in the

:55:49. > :55:53.aftermath of the arrest of Abdeslam, the feeling that they got him, and

:55:54. > :55:56.now this. How can they ramp up their response even further when they were

:55:57. > :56:02.already pretty much at the highest state of alert? They have gone up

:56:03. > :56:07.from level three to level 4 in terms of the state of alert in the City.

:56:08. > :56:11.And in the wake of the Paris attacks Brussels was in virtual lockdown for

:56:12. > :56:15.several days when it went to this higher state of alert and we are

:56:16. > :56:20.back there again, security will be high. Cooperation between different

:56:21. > :56:22.European countries will be key, President Francois Hollande

:56:23. > :56:28.addressed his nation today saying we have to be calm, lucid and

:56:29. > :56:33.determined. And intelligence sharing will be one of the most important

:56:34. > :56:36.things going forward. There is intelligence in separate countries

:56:37. > :56:40.often, and one of the lessons of the Paris attacks is that that

:56:41. > :56:44.intelligence isn't always shared quickly enough. For now the focus is

:56:45. > :56:49.on ensuring that there are no other attacks in the immediate aftermath

:56:50. > :56:56.of what happened this morning. Bracing for worse news to come in

:56:57. > :56:59.terms of casualty figures. At least 26 are dead, the Prime Minister

:57:00. > :57:03.Charles Michel has talked about the possibility of scores dead and

:57:04. > :57:06.injured. And that those scenes, obviously in the Maelbeek Metro

:57:07. > :57:10.station close to hear, raising disturbing reminders for many people

:57:11. > :57:17.in the UK of what happened in the 7/7 attacks on the tube in London.

:57:18. > :57:20.People packed tightly into a Metro carriage in the heart of rush-hour

:57:21. > :57:25.and horrible reports coming from survivors and people who got out of

:57:26. > :57:29.the Maelbeek Metro of the deadline around, people injured who had lost

:57:30. > :57:35.limbs and so forth. We have to be prepared while being careful, for

:57:36. > :57:39.those casualties figures to rise. Of course there has to be greater

:57:40. > :57:43.cross-border intelligence sharing and cooperation, but Belgium also

:57:44. > :57:47.has a big domestic problem, doesn't it? How does it deal with that, the

:57:48. > :57:54.biggest number of jihadis returning from Iraq and Syria of any European

:57:55. > :57:58.nation. There must have been a support network supporting Salah

:57:59. > :58:02.Abdeslam as he was hiding after the Paris attacks. What more can it do

:58:03. > :58:08.domestically to deal with this? Well a lot of it has to be intelligence.

:58:09. > :58:13.And more security. We will have to get used to far more security at

:58:14. > :58:18.airports, you go through Brussels airport an awful lot, and you just

:58:19. > :58:22.walking like many airports, going into the terminal building without

:58:23. > :58:26.being checked. That has a huge glass frontage. If a suicide bomber cans

:58:27. > :58:30.in the walk inside that building which we believe is what happened

:58:31. > :58:34.this morning, then security is going to have to being creased. Perhaps

:58:35. > :58:38.there will have to be checks before you arrive at the airport building

:58:39. > :58:41.and it will be massively inconvenient for many travellers.

:58:42. > :58:42.When people say we should not allow the terrorists to win when they

:58:43. > :58:59.attacked like this, it will affect people's daily lives and

:59:00. > :59:01.there will have to be more security, more checks. There will have to be

:59:02. > :59:04.more intrusive intelligence methods used to try to track these people

:59:05. > :59:06.down. Those are the sorts of debates you have do have in a democratic

:59:07. > :59:09.society. What is the right balance between security and freedom and

:59:10. > :59:12.many people feel in Belgium that the balance is not right and more needs

:59:13. > :59:14.to be done to try to track down the people planning further attacks. OK,

:59:15. > :59:17.thanks for that, Chris Morris in Brussels. Bringing you more

:59:18. > :59:21.responses we have been getting from European leaders, President Lon of

:59:22. > :59:25.France said the attacks in Brussels are the manifestation of a global

:59:26. > :59:30.threat that demands a global response. He warned that the world

:59:31. > :59:36.faced what he said would be a long war against terrorism. Viewers on

:59:37. > :59:37.BBC One, in the UK, are leaving us now,