:00:08. > :00:10.Hello, I'm Ros Atkins, this is Outside Source.
:00:11. > :00:13.So-called Islamic State claim responsibility for another terror
:00:14. > :00:19.This time Brussels was the target with rush-hour bombings at the main
:00:20. > :00:21.airport and a central metro station.
:00:22. > :00:24.More than 30 people have been killed.
:00:25. > :00:26.We'll be talking in detail about what it means for security
:00:27. > :00:34.The Belgian authorities have released this photo of three
:00:35. > :00:38.suspects, who may still be on the run. We'll explain more about the
:00:39. > :00:42.circumstances of that photo and we're going to be covering this
:00:43. > :00:45.story across the next hour. If you have any questions about it, use the
:00:46. > :01:10.hashtag BBC OS. We begin in Brussels where it's been
:01:11. > :01:14.an horrific stage. I need to emphasise three developments. First
:01:15. > :01:21.a claim of responsibility direct from the so-called Islamic State
:01:22. > :01:24.group. The director of an organisation called the site
:01:25. > :01:29.intelligence groups and she tells us Isis has released the English claim
:01:30. > :01:32.for the Brussels attack. Images like these very similar but in a number
:01:33. > :01:39.of languages have been released by Islamic State. Second, let's bring
:01:40. > :01:42.up wire copy here through the Outside Source screen. Norts
:01:43. > :01:47.Brussels say they have found -- authorities in Brussels say they
:01:48. > :01:50.have found chemical products and Islamic State group flag found in a
:01:51. > :01:54.raid which took place today, since the bomb attacks. This is some
:01:55. > :01:58.advice from the British Foreign Office in the UK: It's advising
:01:59. > :02:03.British nationals against travelling to Brussels unless necessary. That
:02:04. > :02:09.is directly in line with the advice the Belgian authorities are issuing
:02:10. > :02:13.to Belgian nationals. Let's look at how the day's events unfolded. The
:02:14. > :02:18.first we heard about this story here in the BBC Newsroom came in the form
:02:19. > :02:22.of a short news wire from the Reuters news agency, quoting local
:02:23. > :02:27.Belgian media. Two explosions heard at Brussels airport, cause unclear.
:02:28. > :02:31.While we were seeing that, multiple messages posted on social media from
:02:32. > :02:35.the airport backing up what that news wire was telling us. In fact,
:02:36. > :02:41.it was established relatively quickly that the explosions were at
:02:42. > :02:45.7 GMT, 8am local time. While the emergency services were rushing to
:02:46. > :02:50.the airport to help those who'd been injured, there was another explosion
:02:51. > :02:54.in the centre of town, at Maalbeek Metro station. We'll get to the
:02:55. > :03:04.Metro station in a couple of minutes. First' let's focus on the
:03:05. > :03:08.two explosions at Zavantem airport. At the moment the authorities are
:03:09. > :03:12.saying 11 people died here, 81 were wounded. This diagram helps us
:03:13. > :03:17.explain better what happened. First, there was an explosion in the
:03:18. > :03:20.check-in area. Then an explosion near a Starbucks cafe. Both of these
:03:21. > :03:26.areas are places where you wouldn't have had to go through any security
:03:27. > :03:30.checks to reach. Then the authorities initially mistakenly,
:03:31. > :03:34.but they confirmed this image was a real one from CCTV, it shows three
:03:35. > :03:39.men, all considered to be suspects by the police. It's not known if
:03:40. > :03:43.they're still alive or if the suicide bomber is among them. One
:03:44. > :03:49.detail a lot of people are focussing on, these two men are both wearing
:03:50. > :03:52.black gloves on their left hand, no glove on their right hand. Certainly
:03:53. > :03:56.a strange thing to do. There's speculation that those gloves could
:03:57. > :03:59.have disguised detonators, though at this stage, it's possible to say --
:04:00. > :04:04.impossible to say if that's the case. As the story was developing,
:04:05. > :04:09.lots of pictures were coming into the BBC News room. Let's have a look
:04:10. > :04:13.at some of them. These are pictures filmed by someone who was in that
:04:14. > :04:16.check-in area. You can see the terrible aftermath of these
:04:17. > :04:21.explosions with people running, smoke everywhere and debris
:04:22. > :04:26.everywhere. These are pictures from outside where hundreds and hundreds
:04:27. > :04:29.of people were guided out of the airport terminal, given advice by
:04:30. > :04:33.the police as to where to go and while they came out, of course, the
:04:34. > :04:37.emergency services were going in. Some of those people who witnessed
:04:38. > :04:43.this terrible attack have been speaking about what they saw. I was
:04:44. > :04:47.having my break. I was inside the building. We just heard a loud bang.
:04:48. > :04:52.Everything was shaking. We look outside the window. There was smoke
:04:53. > :04:58.coming out of the departure hall. I thought I was hurt, I was hit. Then
:04:59. > :05:02.there were two people who were working on the airport. They told me
:05:03. > :05:06.just to come inside. They locked the door. People started panicking,
:05:07. > :05:11.running. The only thing I was seeing was just dust in the air, like
:05:12. > :05:15.people running to save their lives. There was some announcement, clearly
:05:16. > :05:20.something had gone wrong. The woman's voice was like quiet shaken
:05:21. > :05:27.on the intercom. That's when I know we should move. The question from
:05:28. > :05:32.Terry about why Brussels would have been a target, we'll get into that
:05:33. > :05:40.in five or ten minutes with Gordon Corera. If you have questions send
:05:41. > :05:44.them in. Next let's turn from the airport to Maalbeek Metro, 11
:05:45. > :05:49.kilometres from the airport. We know a train had just left of the station
:05:50. > :05:53.when a bomb exploded. At least 20 people were killed over 100 were
:05:54. > :05:58.injured. To give you an idea of how central this is. There's the Metro
:05:59. > :06:02.station, here's the European Commission, council of the European
:06:03. > :06:07.Union, the European Parliament. This is within easy walking distance of
:06:08. > :06:10.that station. Several of you have been saying, where does this fit
:06:11. > :06:17.into what happened last week? Let me explain. If we go four kilometres
:06:18. > :06:22.across town, we reach the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels, which is where
:06:23. > :06:28.on Friday, the suspected ring leader of November's Paris attacks was
:06:29. > :06:31.picked up, Salah Abdeslam. We know that one image that's been shared a
:06:32. > :06:35.lot from the Metro in the aftermath of that bomb is this one, dark with
:06:36. > :06:39.people being guided off the carriages. As well as these stills,
:06:40. > :06:43.lots of images started to come into the newsroom. For instance, this is
:06:44. > :06:49.a video very similar to that still, where we sow people being helped --
:06:50. > :06:53.see people being helped in almost darkness to walk down the tunnel and
:06:54. > :06:56.back to safety. It's rush hour, that's why it's so busy. This gives
:06:57. > :06:59.you an idea of the scale of the explosion. This is the entrance to
:07:00. > :07:02.the Metro station and the smoke has made its way all the way up from the
:07:03. > :07:08.tunnel and out through the entrance way. Very soon after these pictures,
:07:09. > :07:12.a couple of pictures to show you, these ones give you an idea of the
:07:13. > :07:15.way the emergency services had to treat the injured immediately on the
:07:16. > :07:19.pavement right there and then to give them the help they needed. Some
:07:20. > :07:26.of those caught up in that attack have also been describing their
:07:27. > :07:32.experiences. In between the stations, when we felt a small blast
:07:33. > :07:37.of air. We heard thudding in the distance. The Metro immediately
:07:38. > :07:40.stopped. The lights turned off. The engine turned off and a message came
:07:41. > :07:44.over the intercom saying there had been a disturbance on the line, that
:07:45. > :07:49.continued for a few minutes. People were obviously nervous. I think a
:07:50. > :07:52.lot of people, like myself, had been reading about the explosion at
:07:53. > :07:56.Brussels airport, as they were on their way to work. Train staff came
:07:57. > :08:01.through and I asked one of them, "Was there an explosion? And the
:08:02. > :08:03.woman would worked for the rail service said yes, then her colleague
:08:04. > :08:09.followed and I asked where the explosion was. He said Maalbeek. So
:08:10. > :08:17.then we were evacuated. They turned off the electricity on the line. We
:08:18. > :08:21.walked out the back of the carriage. This is how the Belgian prime
:08:22. > :08:25.minister has described today calling it a black moment for our country,
:08:26. > :08:29.now more than ever I would like to appeal to all to be calm and show
:08:30. > :08:35.solidarity. The French government has used even stronger language, "We
:08:36. > :08:41.are at war. We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to
:08:42. > :08:44.acts of war." A couple of viewers asking what's happened to the three
:08:45. > :08:48.men in that photo that I've just shown you. Let's bring in the BBC's
:08:49. > :08:52.Ben Brown, who is just by the airport in Brussels. What more do we
:08:53. > :09:00.know about those three men and where they may be now? Well, the
:09:01. > :09:04.indication we were getting from Belgian police were perhaps two of
:09:05. > :09:09.those three were dead, in other words that they were suicide bombers
:09:10. > :09:13.or killed in the attack today. The third, who is the one on the right,
:09:14. > :09:18.wearing the hat, is still at large. Now an arrest warrant has been put
:09:19. > :09:22.out for him. It seems he managed to escape, just one of the three
:09:23. > :09:26.managed to escape. 11 killed in the attack here at the Brussels
:09:27. > :09:29.international airport. It's interesting and significant that a
:09:30. > :09:35.third device was found later on, unexploded. So two went off. The
:09:36. > :09:39.first one went off around 8am, this morning, local time. Then as people
:09:40. > :09:42.were running from that first explosion, there was a second
:09:43. > :09:46.explosion in which many people seemed to have been caught up, as
:09:47. > :09:53.they were running from the first blast. Then later on, a third device
:09:54. > :09:57.was found. So it does seem that perhaps, And this is speculation,
:09:58. > :10:01.that those three attackers you saw in the CCTV image, pushing trolleys,
:10:02. > :10:06.they each had a device, but somehow the third man, the one in the hat
:10:07. > :10:11.didn't detonate his device. So that third device was later found and he,
:10:12. > :10:16.it seems, is still on the run. Also was found in the airport here a
:10:17. > :10:21.Kalashnikov assault rifle. I should just say, in the last hour or so,
:10:22. > :10:24.they've really beefed up the security presence around the
:10:25. > :10:28.airport. About half a dozen truck loads of Belgian army troops just
:10:29. > :10:31.rolled past us here and went straight into the airport. We gather
:10:32. > :10:36.the airport won't be re-opening any time soon. This is a crime scene, of
:10:37. > :10:41.course. A huge forensic investigation is under way into
:10:42. > :10:45.exactly what happened. It won't re-open until Thursday at least. It
:10:46. > :10:48.is normally a very busy airport, both around Europe, flights around
:10:49. > :10:53.Europe and around the world. When the bombers struck at 8am this
:10:54. > :10:57.morning, it was particularly busy. This is a huge tragedy for Belgium,
:10:58. > :11:04.how's the country planning to mark those who it's lost? It is, of
:11:05. > :11:09.course. In a sense, it's a tragedy that ever since the Paris attacks,
:11:10. > :11:15.back in November, that killed 130 people, and the very strong links
:11:16. > :11:20.between Brussels, the Molenbeek area of Brussels and some of the Paris
:11:21. > :11:25.attackers, ever since those links emerged, Brussels has been a city
:11:26. > :11:32.bracing itself for attack. I was here on Friday, when Salah Abdeslam
:11:33. > :11:37.was arrested. That 26-year-old suspect behind the Paris attacks,
:11:38. > :11:42.there are Belgian troops walking around the city, there have been for
:11:43. > :11:51.weeks. Brussels has almost got used to being in a state of preparing
:11:52. > :11:55.itself for an attack. People still can't believe it has happened. Three
:11:56. > :12:00.days of national mourning have been declared. There's a vigil going on
:12:01. > :12:02.right now in the centre of Brussels, several vigils, actually, where
:12:03. > :12:08.people are remembering the dead and the injured. The king of Belgium has
:12:09. > :12:12.said that he and the queen share the pain of all the people, all the
:12:13. > :12:17.victims and their families and all the people of Belgium and has said
:12:18. > :12:22.that this was cowardly and odious attack. Thank you very much. Ben
:12:23. > :12:28.Brown live from just by the airport in Brussels. Lots of people sharing
:12:29. > :12:32.this image of the Eiffel Tower coloured in the colours of the
:12:33. > :12:35.Belgian flag this evening, just that's was in the colours of the
:12:36. > :12:40.French flag after the Paris attacks. Some European leaders are trying to
:12:41. > :12:46.identify this not as an attack on Brussels or Belgium, but as an
:12:47. > :12:50.attack on the whole of Europe. TRANSLATION: The terrorists have
:12:51. > :12:55.struck Belgium, but it is Europe which has been targeted. It is the
:12:56. > :13:03.whole world which is concerned with this. We should take conscience of
:13:04. > :13:08.the magnitude and the gravity of the threat, terrorist threat. These were
:13:09. > :13:12.attacks in Belgium. They could just as well be attacks in Britain,
:13:13. > :13:15.France, Germany or elsewhere in Europe. We need to stand together
:13:16. > :13:19.against these appalling terrorists and make sure they can never win.
:13:20. > :13:24.There's David Cameron. Countries across Europe have been stepping up
:13:25. > :13:28.security measures. Speaking of the Prime Minister, here he is on
:13:29. > :13:32.Twitter telling us that the UK will be increasing police presence at
:13:33. > :13:35.ports, airports, tube stations and international railway stations. The
:13:36. > :13:39.French are deploying 1600 police officers in a number of different
:13:40. > :13:44.locations. Germany too has stepped up security measures on a number of
:13:45. > :13:48.its borders, including that with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg
:13:49. > :13:53.and also with France. All of these attacks today have put the Schengen
:13:54. > :13:57.zone back in the spotlight. We have talked about Schengen a lot. This is
:13:58. > :14:01.the free movement zone which all these countries in blue are members
:14:02. > :14:05.of. If you are within it, you can move around very freely. The fear is
:14:06. > :14:10.that very ability to move freely is making it easier to organise
:14:11. > :14:14.attacks, such as these. Paris has raised lots of questions on how
:14:15. > :14:18.Europe stops these attacks. What's happened today in Brussels adds
:14:19. > :14:22.urgency to the need for answers. Let's speak to our Security
:14:23. > :14:25.Correspondent, Gordon Corera. Lots of viewers sending in messages,
:14:26. > :14:30.several saying why would IS target Brussels? Well Brussels, the heart
:14:31. > :14:34.of Europe, the heart of the European Union. They've been trying to target
:14:35. > :14:38.a lot of European countries. The statement they put out today, which
:14:39. > :14:42.we think is linked to IS and comes from one of their registered or
:14:43. > :14:47.standard media accounts just says that Brussels was targeted as one of
:14:48. > :14:50.the crusader capitals, if you like. Whether it's linked to the arrest on
:14:51. > :14:54.Friday of Salah Abdeslam, that's less clear. What the links are
:14:55. > :14:59.between the group that carried out this attack and the Paris network
:15:00. > :15:02.still a bit unclear. It is possible that there's a direct link, that
:15:03. > :15:06.these are people that are also involved in Paris and that perhaps
:15:07. > :15:10.they felt the net closing in on them and decided to push forward plans to
:15:11. > :15:13.carry out an attack. Or it could be a completely separate cell. We don't
:15:14. > :15:16.know that yet for sure. We talked after the Paris attacks and
:15:17. > :15:19.discussed the Schengen zone and discussed the fact that the
:15:20. > :15:22.different agencies across Europe perhaps weren't sharing information
:15:23. > :15:26.as they might have done. Those same questions are going to come again.
:15:27. > :15:29.That's right. There's a question within Belgium itself, how good is
:15:30. > :15:34.the information sharing there? It is a country which has had problems.
:15:35. > :15:38.The issue of jihadism in Belgium has been deep rooted there for many
:15:39. > :15:41.years. A very high proportion relatively have been going from
:15:42. > :15:46.Belgium to Iraq and Syria compared to other European countries. 100
:15:47. > :15:50.from Brussels alone organise to one think-tank. Brussels has this issue
:15:51. > :15:53.here. Plus the question of information sharing within Belgium
:15:54. > :15:57.are the police and Security Services talking to each other? And then
:15:58. > :16:01.there's the European question - are European services sharing with each
:16:02. > :16:05.other? Are they putting enough information into databases so when
:16:06. > :16:08.people reach borders the authorities know they're on the watch list of
:16:09. > :16:12.one country. There are still concerns that process is not good
:16:13. > :16:17.enough yet. Why wasn't Brussels on its highest level of alert given
:16:18. > :16:22.what happened last week? It was on its highest level of alert, it's
:16:23. > :16:26.been there at previous points. It's a good question. Perhaps they had no
:16:27. > :16:30.indication whatsoever about this. It is hard for cities to remain on the
:16:31. > :16:39.highest level of alert over extended periods. It often means impacting
:16:40. > :16:43.people's journeys. If you don't have the highest intelligence you don't
:16:44. > :16:47.stay at the top level of threat. It's very hard to stop them, but
:16:48. > :16:50.what measures are now available to Belgium, but more broadly the
:16:51. > :16:55.European Union, to offer some comfort to people who tonight are
:16:56. > :17:00.incredibly worried? What's clear since the Paris attacks is that IS
:17:01. > :17:04.has been shifting towards softer targets. Rather than hit military,
:17:05. > :17:10.government, police, they were looking in Paris at concerts,
:17:11. > :17:14.football stadiums and today, we saw airports and the Metro. Clearly
:17:15. > :17:17.there will be now more focus on the transport hubs, what more can be
:17:18. > :17:21.done. They are difficult to secure. A lot of people go through them. The
:17:22. > :17:26.point is they're supposed to facilitate movement. If you put too
:17:27. > :17:30.many layers of security in front of them you slow that down enormously
:17:31. > :17:37.and make daily life much harder. People will look at whether there
:17:38. > :17:40.are ways to improve perimeter security, explosives detection at
:17:41. > :17:43.transport hubs, if that is up the IS target list. Thank you very much.
:17:44. > :17:46.Thanks for sending in your questions. I hope that has helped
:17:47. > :17:50.explain the story a little bit further. Now let's look in more
:17:51. > :17:57.detail at the city of Brussels. It was also in the news repeatedly last
:17:58. > :18:04.week. On Tuesday last week police raided a flat in a suburb called
:18:05. > :18:08.Forest. One man was killed, linked to the Paris attacks, two others
:18:09. > :18:12.escaped. We were told that a fingerprint from this man, Salah
:18:13. > :18:17.Abdeslam, one of the main suspects in the Paris attacks, was foubd in
:18:18. > :18:22.the flat. Fast forward to Friday, another raid. This time in the area
:18:23. > :18:28.of Molenbeek. A part of Brussels we've discussed a lot because of its
:18:29. > :18:32.association was radical Islam. Salah Abdeslam was caught. You may have
:18:33. > :18:39.seen this footage. GUNFIRE There's a brief shootout
:18:40. > :18:43.with police before he was wounded and then he was taken into custody.
:18:44. > :18:47.Another man was also taken into custody. It became clear that
:18:48. > :18:53.Abdeslam had returned to Belgium soon after the Paris attacks. Well,
:18:54. > :18:56.the Molenbeek district where Abdeslam was captured is connected
:18:57. > :19:01.to a number of the suspects from the Paris attacks. It's become symbolic
:19:02. > :19:05.of Belgium's problems with Islamist extremists. This is also illustrated
:19:06. > :19:09.by the number of Belgian fighters who have travelled to Syria to fight
:19:10. > :19:27.for Islamic State. These are the latest figures we have: 451 is the
:19:28. > :19:35.latest figure. Per capita, twice as many than France, four times as many
:19:36. > :19:38.as Britain. An expert on radicalisation based at Kings
:19:39. > :19:43.College London told us his thoughts about these statistics. I think it
:19:44. > :19:50.underscores the depth and the extent of the radical network that exists
:19:51. > :19:55.within Belgium. We had the arrest a few days ago of Salah Abdeslam, one
:19:56. > :19:58.of the key perpetrators of the Paris attacks last November, which
:19:59. > :20:02.obviously devastated the French capital back then. It does really
:20:03. > :20:06.speak to the size and the sophistication of what we're seeing
:20:07. > :20:12.in Europe right now. If there is a network of the kind of scale which
:20:13. > :20:14.you allude to, isn't it an intelligence failure that the
:20:15. > :20:20.Belgians and French and others have not been able to understand it
:20:21. > :20:24.better? Absolutely. I think all the intelligence agencies were caught on
:20:25. > :20:30.the hop by Syria and particularly in the early stageds in 012 -- stages
:20:31. > :20:33.in 2012 and 2013 by the flow of foreign fighters going out there. I
:20:34. > :20:37.don't think anyone was prepared for the magnitude for what unravelled at
:20:38. > :20:45.that time. Now the intelligence agencies need to be cooperating a
:20:46. > :20:47.lot more closely. The French said something similar today in having a
:20:48. > :20:51.united European response to this. This is a challenge that faces all
:20:52. > :20:55.of us, particularly on the continent, where there is the
:20:56. > :21:03.availability of weapons that are more easily accessible than in the
:21:04. > :21:12.UK by comparison. We need to have a more joined-up intelligence network
:21:13. > :21:15.helping to us ID I these people. We were repeatedly told don't see
:21:16. > :21:19.Al-Qaeda as a coherent network taking instruction from the top. How
:21:20. > :21:22.would you characterise the way Islamic State is operating its
:21:23. > :21:28.networks now? Of course, Al-Qaeda was a much more difus than Islamic
:21:29. > :21:31.State, because it couldn't hold territory, particularly in the
:21:32. > :21:35.aftermath of September 11th. In the place it's did hold territory, they
:21:36. > :21:41.were difficult to reach and hard to access. In the past, you had to go
:21:42. > :21:45.to Yemen or Somalia or Afghanistan. These were not easily accessible.
:21:46. > :21:49.Syria and Iraq are more readily available in terms of transport and
:21:50. > :21:52.getting there. We've seen large numbers of European citizens migrate
:21:53. > :21:56.there. Perhaps something like 5,000 from Europe as a whole over the last
:21:57. > :22:01.four or five years. You have this critical mass of people who are
:22:02. > :22:06.there, who are living in a highly permissive environment for learning
:22:07. > :22:09.bomb-making skills, where they can train with heavy weaponry and with
:22:10. > :22:13.the things we don't want them to have access to and to come back to
:22:14. > :22:18.Europe and unleash this kind of thing. It's worth saying briefly
:22:19. > :22:22.that whilst events like Paris last year were clearly directed, these
:22:23. > :22:26.people had been sent back from Islamic State, we've also seen
:22:27. > :22:29.self-start ere vents as well, where individuals have not travelled
:22:30. > :22:32.there, but carried out attacks in the name of the group. We will
:22:33. > :22:36.continue to see that. But it's the directed attacks that pose the most
:22:37. > :22:42.significant challenge. Here's a tweet: Jonathan is watching in the
:22:43. > :22:45.north of England. What impact will today's news have on airport
:22:46. > :22:51.security? Will we see pre-airport entry security? We're going to turn
:22:52. > :22:55.that this issue now. The first of the two targets in Brussels was the
:22:56. > :23:01.airport. In response Gordon alluded to this, security has been stepped
:23:02. > :23:06.up. This is Frankfurt, one of Germany's busiest airports. This is
:23:07. > :23:09.Amsterdam. You can see the heavy security. This is Rome's main
:23:10. > :23:13.airport. These are short-term responses, but in the long-term, a
:23:14. > :23:19.lot of people are asking this question:
:23:20. > :23:26."I have a feeling this could be the beginning of Europe-wide airport
:23:27. > :23:30.security checks before we enter the airport." Here's our transport
:23:31. > :23:37.correspondent with a report on just these issues.
:23:38. > :23:41.They're image that's will inevitably frighten travellers, the attackers
:23:42. > :23:45.focussing on soft targets, airports, underground trains. Just like in
:23:46. > :23:53.London, a decade ago, picking on ordinary people. But can you ever
:23:54. > :23:58.make the transport system safe? We're all familiar with airport
:23:59. > :24:02.security checks like these. But critically, the Brussels bombers
:24:03. > :24:06.never went through them. The thing is, there are still large parts of
:24:07. > :24:10.airports, before you get to security, that are effectively big,
:24:11. > :24:17.open, public places where anybody can walk in, carrying a bag and
:24:18. > :24:20.posing as a passenger. It's not just airports. It's the underground
:24:21. > :24:26.network as well. It's big railway stations. The reality is it's nigh
:24:27. > :24:32.on impossible to keep the whole transport network completely safe.
:24:33. > :24:36.Already you'll see more police patrolling Britain's railway
:24:37. > :24:39.stations and airports. The Prime Minister insisting they're well
:24:40. > :24:43.prepared. If there is information that implies there's a direct threat
:24:44. > :24:48.to the United Kingdom, then we'd raise the security threat level even
:24:49. > :24:51.higher than it is today. But it already stands at severe, which
:24:52. > :24:55.means we believe an attack is highly likely. That has been the case for
:24:56. > :25:01.some time. We will continue to keep the situation under review. Some
:25:02. > :25:05.airports, especially in the Middle East, screen passengers before
:25:06. > :25:08.they're allowed into the building. Every time you come up with a
:25:09. > :25:13.solution, there's always a problem associated with it... The former
:25:14. > :25:17.head of security at Heathrow says that can create its own problems.
:25:18. > :25:23.You'd be building up queues outside the terminal. Then you're massing
:25:24. > :25:27.agroup of people, which are another perfect target for a bomber or
:25:28. > :25:32.drive-by shooter. Experts say the best way to stop this is to know the
:25:33. > :25:37.attack's coming in advance, through surveillance and tip-offs. Tonight
:25:38. > :25:42.the Government's warning Britons not to travel to Brussels unless
:25:43. > :25:46.essential. If you want to follow this story
:25:47. > :25:50.online, there's a live page running through the BBC News app and the BBC
:25:51. > :25:53.News we site. I'm back with you in a couple of minutes, with ongoing
:25:54. > :25:56.coverage of these Brussels attacks.