THE targets were chosen carefully. The first attack hit the international departures lounge at Zaventem airport, right beside the American Airlines desk.
The second in Brussels at Maalbeek metro station, was in the so-called EU quarter, on the doorstep of the European Parliament and European Commission.
Both would leave carnage, and the dead would come from all over the world.
The Belgian prime minister Charles Michel pointed to the massacre in Paris four months ago and the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005: “It is a common fight, it is a fight without borders,” he said.
By yesterday evening, 34 people were confirmed dead. With at least another 220 injured, some critically, the death toll is sure to rise.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to a news agency affiliated with the group. They said several suicide bombers had taken part.
The first attack came at 8am local time at the airport, just six miles away from Brussels.
There were shouts in Arabic and shots fired from kalashnikov rifles. Some reports suggested the first explosion at one side of the terminal forced hundreds of fleeing travellers to run straight into the blast of the second bomb outside a Starbucks kiosk.
The death toll at the airport was 14. The injuries of those taken to hospital suggest the bombs were packed with nails.
Local firefighter Pierre Meys told the BBC that it was: “worst thing I’ve ever seen in my career.”
An hour later at Maalbeek metro station, another blast in the middle of rush hour saw 20 people die and dozens more injured.
The bomb was in the middle car of a three carriage train and went off just as it was leaving Maalbeek. Surviving passengers who were able, forced the doors open, running on the tracks back to the safety of the station, worried this was the first explosion of many.
Other commuters in the station reported hearing the sharp banging noises of the bomb, before the sudden rush of boiling hot air, and the thick fog of the dust disturbed for by the force.
Throughout the day more blasts were heard at the airport as police performed controlled explosions on suspicious packages.
The CEO of the airport later said a third bomb was found unexploded in a suitcase at the airport, along with two Kalashnikovs.
A grainy picture of three men was circulated later yesterday afternoon. Two of the men, named as brothers Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui. were presumed dead, thought to be responsible for the airport bombs. Both were wearing a black glove on their left hand concealing triggers. Another man in white, was the subject of a Europe-wide manhunt.
“Two of them probably carried out suicide attacks,” Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said. “A third one, dressed in a light jacket and hat, is actively being searched for.”
Raids on houses turned up a nail bomb, a Daesh flag and chemicals in the district of Schaarbeek.
Announcing three days of public mourning, Michel said: “This is a day of tragedy, a black day... I would like to call on everyone to show calmness and solidarity”.
Some train services resumed at around 4pm yesterday, but Eurostar and all flights into the country were cancelled. Hotels were offering free rooms and taxi drivers offered free rides.
Hundreds of troops joined police to patrol the streets.
Workers in the city have been told to stay at home today.
Last night Downing Street confirmed that at least one Briton was among the dead. The American government confirmed that at least 12 US citizens were missing.
It will be an international death toll caused, seemingly, by an international terrorist force.
Belgium’s jihadi networks predate the Syrian war; Sharia4Belgium has links to Anjem Choudary, the spokesman for al-Muhajiroun, whose members were involved in the murder of Lee Rigby.
They trained up fighters for Daesh, telling them they were heroes against the "crusaders". Hundreds of Belgians have travelled to Syria.
Though many, if not most, have come back disenchanted, others believe still in the fight. And they have been trained.
Several of those who responsible for the atrocity in Paris last November were based in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek. One of those attackers, Salah Abdeslam, returned the next day and for four months successfully hid from authorities until his arrest last Friday.
Many Belgians expected some form of response to Abdeslam’s arrest. However, the scale and the target of that response clearly caught Belgian security services off guard.
Yesterday's attack is unlikely to the be the end.
One tweet circulated after the attack by prominent Daesh supporters simply read: “What will be coming is worse”.
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