BRUSSELS: Police raided Brussels neighborhoods Friday in operations described as linked to this week’s bombings as well as a suspected new plot in France. They detained three people and shot two of them in the leg, including one who was carrying a suspicious bag while accompanied by a young girl.
Gunfire and two blasts rang out in the Schaerbeek district, the same area where police had earlier found explosives and bomb-making material in an apartment used by the suicide attackers who killed 31 people and wounded 270 on Tuesday in the airport and subway.
The district also was raided Thursday night. Police also searched the Forest and Saint-Gilles neighborhoods Friday, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said, detailing the arrests and shootings.
Dozens of heavily armed officers began the operation about 1:30 p.m., when there were “two big explosions,” resident Marie-Pierre Bouvez said, and it lasted about two hours. It was not immediately clear if the blasts heard were controlled explosions.
A man who was seen sitting at a tram stop with a young girl was ordered by police “to put the bag far from him,” and after he did so, police shot him twice, apparently in the leg, said resident Norman Kabir. The girl was taken into safe custody, and a bomb-squad robot searched the bag, he added.
State broadcaster RTBF said police apparently feared that the bag held explosives.
Schaerbeek district Mayor Bernard Clerfayt told RTBF the raid was linked to the Brussels attacks as well as Thursday’s detention in France of a man suspected of plotting a new attack.
Bouvez said police kept the area locked down and shouted at her to “get back inside” when she tried to go into the street.
Meanwhile, Belgian officials have named the second suicide bomber at Brussels airport as Najim Laachraoui, and said that his DNA was found at sites of the November Paris attacks.
On the third and final day of national mourning for victims of the attacks by militants, Prime Minister Charles Michel skipped a wreath-laying ceremony at the airport with US Secretary of State John Kerry because of the police raids.
Kerry, in a hastily arranged visit, defended Belgium’s counterterrorism efforts despite a series of security failures before the bombings.
Confirming that several FBI agents are involved in the investigation, Kerry said the “carping” about Belgium’s shortcomings “is a little bit frantic and inappropriate.”
Authorities also announced that American, British, German, Chinese, Italian, French and Dutch citizens were among the dead.
Gunfire and two blasts rang out in the Schaerbeek district, the same area where police had earlier found explosives and bomb-making material in an apartment used by the suicide attackers who killed 31 people and wounded 270 on Tuesday in the airport and subway.
The district also was raided Thursday night. Police also searched the Forest and Saint-Gilles neighborhoods Friday, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said, detailing the arrests and shootings.
Dozens of heavily armed officers began the operation about 1:30 p.m., when there were “two big explosions,” resident Marie-Pierre Bouvez said, and it lasted about two hours. It was not immediately clear if the blasts heard were controlled explosions.
A man who was seen sitting at a tram stop with a young girl was ordered by police “to put the bag far from him,” and after he did so, police shot him twice, apparently in the leg, said resident Norman Kabir. The girl was taken into safe custody, and a bomb-squad robot searched the bag, he added.
State broadcaster RTBF said police apparently feared that the bag held explosives.
Schaerbeek district Mayor Bernard Clerfayt told RTBF the raid was linked to the Brussels attacks as well as Thursday’s detention in France of a man suspected of plotting a new attack.
Bouvez said police kept the area locked down and shouted at her to “get back inside” when she tried to go into the street.
Meanwhile, Belgian officials have named the second suicide bomber at Brussels airport as Najim Laachraoui, and said that his DNA was found at sites of the November Paris attacks.
On the third and final day of national mourning for victims of the attacks by militants, Prime Minister Charles Michel skipped a wreath-laying ceremony at the airport with US Secretary of State John Kerry because of the police raids.
Kerry, in a hastily arranged visit, defended Belgium’s counterterrorism efforts despite a series of security failures before the bombings.
Confirming that several FBI agents are involved in the investigation, Kerry said the “carping” about Belgium’s shortcomings “is a little bit frantic and inappropriate.”
Authorities also announced that American, British, German, Chinese, Italian, French and Dutch citizens were among the dead.
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