Brussels (Saxilnews.com)-A massive manhunt is under way for a suspect seen with two supposed suicide bombers shortly before they struck Brussels’ Zaventem Airport in the first of two attacks that also hit the city’s metro, killing 31 people and wounding 261.
Belgian Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw confirmed that two brothers, Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui, blew themselves up in the attacks.
Brahim had been identified using finger print records, he said, adding a third suspect remained on the run.
The prosecutor confirmed police had raided an address associated with the attackers after a tip-off by a taxi driver who dropped the attackers off to the airport.
“There was five kilograms of explosives, oxidising liquid, and other materials for making explosives,” he said.
Van Leeuw spoke shortly after crowds of mourners gathered outside Maelbeek station, one of the targets of the attacks, to observe a minute of silence.
The gathering came amid conflicting media reports on the arrest of a third suspect.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for Tuesday morning’s attacks.
“This is a day of tragedy, a black day,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said, describing the bombings as the “deadliest attacks we have ever seen in Belgium”.
But as Belgium began three days of national mourning on Wednesday, he insisted the country would not be cowed by the “blind, violent and cowardly” attacks.
Belgian authorities released pictures of two of the suspects pushing trolleys with their bombs through the terminal and said they were “actively searching” for a third man whose explosives did not to go off.
Police helicopters hovered over the city late into the night and raids were under way across Belgium, prosecutors said, adding that a bomb, an ISIL flag and chemicals had been found in one apartment.
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| People gather and light candles at the Place de la Bourse during a vigil to pay tribute to the victims of the attacks [EPA] |
Police were going door-to-door throughout Brussels searching for suspects or others planning attacks. The interior minister said 600 additional police were deployed.
Brussels residents held a candlelit vigil in the Place de la Bourse square on Tuesday night, where they sang songs and waved the Belgian flag, while on social media thousands of people shared images of beloved Belgian cartoon character Tintin in tears.
“This is an attack against our values, our freedom, and our democracy,” Brussels Mayor Ivan Mayeur said at a press conference. “We won’t let anyone attack our values in a cowardly way.”
Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Brussels, said many in the country were asking whether the attacks represented a continuing threat.
“Belgians feel this is something they’ll now have to get used to…the editor of a prominent Belgian news outlet yesterday was writing that she believed this was something that was becoming part of the system.
“[She said] this was something people have to get used to and have to explain to their children that there is a threat and life has changed.”
Kane said there was also a sense that the blasts were a calculated attack on European insitutions and the “fabric of Europe”.
The explosions struck the heart of European officialdom where NATO headquarters is based, along with the European Union, and European Commission.
