Brussels attacks: Chilling photos show shrapnel and nails found in victims

Pieces of shrapnel which were blasted into the bodies of Brussels terror attack victims have been shown to the media by surgeons. The mangled and twisted bits of metal caused massive injuries in many of the people who survived the atrocities at the city’s airport and a metro station on Tuesday. Belgium’s King Phillipe and Queen Mathilde saw the shrapnel during a visit to a hospital. Nails and screws were also used in the bombs, which left at least 31 people dead and 316 injured. “These bastards sure know what they’re doing,” one Belgian military official said.

I cut the pants off her and she had lots and lots of shrapnel wounds in her leg that were bleeding. A lot of people looked like that, some kids – that was the hardest thing to see for us.

American Dr Laura Billiet who was at the airport at the time of the attacks

The injuries suffered by the bomb victims were said to be more reminiscent of those seen on a battlefield. “For me they were war injuries, a lot of bleeding by shrapnel, legs were ripped off, things like that,” military nurse Jan Vaes said. “Normally you see that maybe in Baghdad or Beirut.“ Investigators also believe the bombs used a white powder called triacetone triperoxide, or TATP— referred to as “Mother of Satan” among jihadists. Forensic experts say it could take weeks to identify all the bodies. They will have to collect wallets and jewellery and check details such as weight, height and hair colour with relatives to make identification 100 per cent certain.

It was an ‘open’ catastrophe, there was no list of who was in the train or at the airport terminal – there was no passenger list like when there’s a plane crash

Federal police spokesman Michael Jonnois

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