AUTHORITIES will keep Brussels on the highest state of alert into the start of the working week because of the “serious and imminent” threat of a Paris-style attack, the Belgian Prime Minister said.
Schools and universities in Brussels will be closed and the city’s underground will remain shut, government officials decided at a meeting yesterday of the country’s National Security Council.
With one suspect in the November 13 attacks in Paris last seen crossing into Belgium, much of Brussels was in lockdown over the weekend.
Officials also recommended that sports competitions and all activities in public buildings be cancelled, and shopping and commercial centres closed.
Belgium’s national crisis centre has raised its terrorism alert for the Brussels region to Level 4, which indicates a “serious and immediate threat”.
Prime Minister Charles Michel said the decision to raise the threat alert to its highest setting was taken “based on quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris ... where several individuals with arms and explosives launch actions, perhaps even in several places at the same time”.
Several weapons were discovered during the search of the home of one of three people arrested in connection with the Paris attacks, but said no explosives were found.
Authorities across Europe, the Middle East and the US are trying to determine how a network of primarily French and Belgian attackers with links to Islamic extremists in Syria plotted the deadliest violence in France in decades, leaving 130 people dead.
A new potential link has emerged in Turkey, where authorities said they detained a 26-year-old Belgian suspected of connections to Islamic extremists, and possibly to the Paris attacks.
Reports identified him as Ahmet Dahmani, and said he is suspected of having explored areas of Paris targeted in the attacks.
Brussels was the home of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected organiser of the Paris attacks, and Belgium has filed charges of “participation in terrorist attacks and participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation” against three other suspects.
At least one Paris attacker, Salah Abdeslam, crossed into Belgium the morning after the attacks but Paris officials say they have no firm information on his whereabouts.
Brussels, a city of more than one million, is home to the headquarters of the European Union, Nato and the offices of several multinational corporations.
Residents were told to avoid gatherings, train stations, airports and commercial districts. Service has been halted on the Metro and underground trams.
Many stores and shopping centres have shut their doors on what would normally be a busy shopping day in the lead-up to Christmas.
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium closed for the weekend, and a Saturday evening concert by French rocker Johnny Hallyday was rescheduled.
Concerns about Europe’s porous borders prompted interior and justice ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday to promise tighter controls to make it easier to track the movements of jihadis with European passports travelling to and from Syria.
Two of the seven terrorists who died in the attacks had entered Europe through Greece, an entry point for thousands of migrants seeking asylum in Europe.
The five other attackers who died had links to France and Belgium. One of the seven dead has not been identified, while a manhunt is under way for one suspect who escaped, 26-year-old Abdeslam. French police stopped him the morning after the attacks at the Belgian border but let him go.
His brother Brahim blew himself up in the Paris massacres. The suspected ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed in a raid on Wednesday in a raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Seven of the eight people detained in that raid have now been released.
Don’t blunder into another conflict, SNP's Stewart Hosie warns David Cameron
Carolyn Leckie: We must not let fear erode our humanity
Belgium: Brussels maintains lockdown over threat of Paris-style terrorist attack
Alyn Smith: We must act to halt rights violations in Bangladesh
Paris attacks ‘mean police cuts must stop’
Scottish Defence League bigots fail to disrupt refugee rally in Glasgow
Letters to The National, November 23: Solidarity is needed in wake of attacks
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here