Associated Press reported it as a “foiled terror attack”. The Central Station, one of the busiest in the country, was evacuated along with the Belgian capital’s Grand Place, a major tourist attraction some 200 metres away.
Flemish tabloid newspaper, Het Laatste Nieuws quoted witnesses saying a man shouted “Allahu Akbar” before a small explosion at the Central Station in Brussels in a week of attacks in Europe.
HLN reported that soldiers ran towards the suspect, saw wires protruding from the man’s clothes, and shot him.
Stationmaster Jean-Michel Michel was quoted by La Dernière Heure newspaper as saying: “We heard the explosion. My colleague thought it was a bomb. The explosion was on the mezzanine level. The man went down to platforms three and four. He said ‘Allahu Akbar’… I would put him at about 35 years old.”
A rail company spokesperson said trains were diverted from the station and buses were dispatched to transport stranded passengers.
Eric Van der Sypt, spokesman for Belgian federal prosecutor, described the incident at Brussels Central station as a terrorist act. National newspaper La Libre Belgique quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying the suspect was wearing a backpack and an explosive belt.
Nicolas Van Herrewegen, a station employee, told public broadcaster RTBF that a man had been shouting in Arabic before he detonated something on a luggage trolley. People within three metres of the trolley were unhurt however, Herrewegen said.
The country’s national alert level has been maintained at its second highest level.