At least 11 people were killed and 35 were wounded in a twin terror attack at 8 am Tuesday morning in the departure hall of Zaventem Airport in Brussels. Another 15 people were killed and 55 wounded in the related metro attack.
Three suicide belts packed with explosives were found by police at the airport, according to local television news reports quoted by Sputnik. A suicide bomber was responsible for one of the blasts, Belgian broadcaster VRT reported.
Several Israelis were in the airport at the time of the explosion but all managed to exit safely with other travelers.
Two explosions were heard at the airport, coming just four days after Salah Abdeslam, the mastermind of the Nov. 13 ISIS attack on Paris, was captured in Brussels.
A United Hatzolah volunteer was at the Brussels airport at the time of the explosions. He described the scene: “At the time of the explosion I was praying at the synagogue in the airport. We felt the explosion. We exited the synagogue in order to see what was happening and we joined the stream of people who were being ushered by police to exit the terminal.
People at the scene said they heard gunshots and screaming in Arabic before the attack, according to media reports.
All airports in the country were shut down pending further developments.
Three explosions tore apart trains at separate locations on the Brussels metro system about a half hour after the initial attack at Zaventem Airport. Due to the obvious risk, the Brussels metro system was shut down and the country’s security leaders activated Level 4, the nation’s highest alert.