A series of apparently coordinated explosions ripped through Brussels airport and a city metro station on Tuesday, killing 35 people and wounding over 200, including an Indian woman, in the latest attacks on Europe by the dreaded ISIS which claimed responsibility for the carnage.
The injured included two employees of the privately-owned Indian airline Jet Airways, and a Slovenian diplomat, although the authorities did not release his name.
The explosions triggered a transport shutdown in the city that is home to the headquarters of both the EU and NATO. Flights, metro, tram and bus services were all suspended. Airports across Europe swiftly announced they were boosting security, including in london, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Jet Airways cancelled all its flights to and from the Belgian capital till Wednesday.
Major international train lines into Brussels, including the Eurostar, were suspended, while security was also beefed up at Belgium’s nuclear plants and at EU buildings in the French city of Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament.
Belgium’s neighbours France, Germany and the Netherlands tightened border security after the attacks.
Fourteen people were killed as two quick explosions took place in the country’s biggest airport just before 8 am in a departure area, breaking windows, furniture and machinery, leaving it looking like a war zone.
Over 80 people were injured in the huge blasts, which triggered a panic run by hundreds of stunned passengers and staff from the airport building.
Authorities said a suicide bomber was to blame for one explosion and that someone was heard shouting in Arabic and open fire moments earlier. A Kalashnikov was later found near the body of a dead man.
The Army team blew up a suspect package at Brussels airport, a journalist said, amid reports police had found an unexploded suicide vest after two deadly bomb attacks.
An hour later, another explosion shattered the middle of a three-coach train car at the Maalbeek Metro station, leaving the carriage in a heap of mangled wreck with 20 dead and 55 injured, 16 of them critically.
As the global community, including India, USA, UK and Russia rallied in solidarity with Belgium, Prime Minister Charles Michel called it a “moment of tragedy” and blamed it on “blind, violent and cowards”.
He declined to link the bloodbath with the March 18 arrest in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam, the suspect in the Paris terrorist attack which killed 130 people in November last year.
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said authorities feared that suspects involved in the deadly attacks could still be at large.
“The inquiry is still ongoing... Because we fear that people are still at large,” Reynders told RTBF television after a news briefing in the Belgian capital.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the terror attacks were “disturbing” and “condemnable”.
Indian Embassy in Brussels issued a travel advisory asking Indian nationals living or visiting it to exercise caution and remain alert, avoiding crowded places. It said people could seek help on phone numbers + 32 2 64091 40, + 32 2 645 1850 and + 32 476 748 575 and asked Indian nationals to share personal whereabouts with close family members and friends at all times and keep in touch with the Mission for necessary advice.
The Embassy in a tweet said Jet passengers stranded in Brussels are being shifted from the airport and that food and accommodation are being provided.
US President Barack Obama condemned the “outrageous” attacks saying the United States would do everything in its power to hunt down those responsible.
British premier David Cameron tweeted that his country would do “everything we can to help,” and announced that Britain’s COBRA security committee would meet on Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the blasts “show once more that terrorism knows no borders and threatens people all over the world.”
French President Francois Hollande said, “Terrorists struck Brussels but it was Europe that was targeted and all the world that is concerned. Today it is Belgium, yesterday it was France.”
TV footages showed a number of Indian passengers being evacuated from the airport. Two Jet Airways planes had arrived earlier in the day from Mumbai and Delhi. According to Jet airways, two of its cabin crew were injured in the blasts, one of whom is an Indian woman.
Jet Airways said it quickly moved guests and staff on the landside at Brussels airport away from the terminal and transit guests in the terminal building to hangers in coaches.
Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya has said his wife and son are stranded in Brussels, but he assured they are safe. The singer’s family was on board a New York-bound Jet Airways flight, which had a stopover in Brussels.
“My wife and son are safe but stranded in Brussels. Initially they were not guided where to go and what to do. Then by the time a third announcement was made, they were evacuated and taken to the tarmac as it was the safest place,” Abhijeet told PTI.
Witnesses said victims lay in pools of blood at the airport, their limbs blown off. There were chaotic scenes as passengers fled in panic, with a thick plume of smoke rising from the main terminal building.
“A man shouted a few words in Arabic and then I heard a huge blast,” airport baggage security officer Alphonse lyoura said, his hands bloodied.
“A lot of people lost limbs. One man had lost both legs and there was a policeman with a totally mangled leg.”
Hundreds of people fled the airport building, some with blood on their faces. First reports said the blasts were centred at the American Airlines check-in desk. The false ceiling in the building came crashing down.
Pictures showed the terminal windows blown out from the force of the explosion and plumes of smoke rising high into the sky. Video also showed terrified passengers running for their lives out of the terminal.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon announced that Belgium’s terror threat had been raised from three to a maximum of four, and the country’s national security council was due to meet.
Residents were told to “stay where you are”, while Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo urged people to avoid making calls to stop the city’s mobile networks getting saturated, and to communicate with online messages instead.
Meanwhile, Belgian authorities urged the media to refrain from reporting on the probe into triple bomb attacks after some said raids were under way in the city.
“The federal prosecutor notes that certain journalists are reporting information about the investigation under way,” a statement said.
“The federal prosecutor urges the Press to immediately refrain from conveying information relative to the investigation so as not to harm the inquiry,” it said.