Witnesses describe loud bang at Brussels train station; police say incident under control https://t.co/fb5XRrpt7i https://t.co/T4UaUjFTby
— CNN (@CNN) June 20, 2017
The day after a reported attack on police in Paris, a major train station in Brussels, Belgium was rocked by reports of an explosion and a flurry of police action. According to CNN, local police are already reporting that the situation at the Brussels Central Station is under control, adding that “the military neutralized an individual as part of securing the scene.” The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also told the outlet that a bomb disposal unit and emergency services were on site, but did not go into detail about what may have happened.
CNN spoke with a witness, Rémy Bonnaffé, who captured a photo of a small fire in the train station after hearing an explosion. “The bang was very loud, it was like a very big firework that just went up in front of my nose,” he said. “The fire was very small. It was a very small explosion but a very loud bang.”
Twee luide ontploffingen in Brussel Cebtraal. Voor mijn neus. Dan snelle knallen na elkaar. pic.twitter.com/FDqVAjgGYg
— Rémy Bonnaffé (@remybonnaffe) June 20, 2017
Meanwhile, BBC News reports the aforementioned “neutralized… individual” was actually a man who was shot by policed following the initial explosion. What’s more, Belgian newspaper La Libre claims “the man who was shot was wearing a rucksack and a bomb belt” and “detonated a device when he attracted the attention of soldiers in the station.”
Brussels was hit by a multi-site terrorist attack in March of last year, when members of a terrorist cell attacked an airport terminal and a train station with suicide bomb vests and remotely detonated devices. The country’s terror threat level has since remained high, especially after recent events in London and Paris.