Brussels under attack: at least 14 die as suicide bomber strikes at airport

At least 14 people have been killed after two explosions ripped through Zaventem Airport in Brussels in a suicide attack. Shots were fired and Arabic shouted before the airport bomb blasts, at about 7am GMT, according to Belgian news agency Belga. “There were two explosions in the departure area, one probably caused by a suicide bomber,” said federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw. Police recovered a Kalashnikov assault rifle next to the dead attacker. An un-exploded bomb belt was also reportedly found at the terminal. It is understood the bombs went off near the check-in desk for American Airlines. About 79 minutes later, Maalbeek metro station was targeted in a separate attack, leaving scores dead and injured.

It was atrocious. The ceilings collapsed. There was blood everywhere, injured people, bags everywhere. We were walking in the debris. It was a war scene.

Zach Mouzoun, who arrived at the airport on a flight from Geneva about 10 minutes before the first blast

Video and images on social media showed smoke rising from an airport building and shattered windows. Confused and shocked passengers fled the terminal to safety as they were evacuated by armed police. Flights in and out of Brussels have been grounded and the city’s pubic transport network has been suspended. There was a controlled explosion of a suspect package at the Vrije University in central Brussels - as  the country’s Tihange nuclear plant was reportedly evacuated. Two people were arrested by armed police at the city’s Noord railway station hours later - as officials said they feared “people are still at large”. The attacks follow the dramatic arrest of Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam in the Belgian capital on Friday - four months after November’s terror in the French capital that left 130 people dead.

Brussels airport