Two explosions have rocked Zaventem airport in Brussels this morning, RTBF TV channel reports.
The cause of the explosions is so far unknown. The airport has been closed, passengers are being evacuated, Gazeta.ru reports.
"There are victims as a result of two explosions in the Brussels airport," the Dutch newspaper Laatste Nieuws reports. Belgian media reported that 11 people have been killed and 20 injured.
"Two explosions occurred in the check-in area of the Brussels Airport. The airport is in lock down," TASS reports.
Brussels Police confirmed information about the explosion in the capital's airport. "There was an explosion, but we cannot say more. It is an explosion in the main hall of the airport," the agency cited a police spokesperson as saying.
Belgium's interior minister Jan Jambon has confirmed that two blasts rocked Zaventem Airport, the RTBF broadcaster reports.
"There has been an explosion in the airport. An emergency plan will certainly be activated," the newspaper La Libre Belgique cited the head of the government of the Brussels region, Rudi Vervoot, as saying.
The Belgian Prime Minister is holding an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
All entrances to the Brussels airport have been closed following two explosions, an airport spokesperson said. "All entrances to the airport have been closed, we are evacuating people from the departure hall. All means to reach the area, both by train and car, have been suspended. There is no way to enter the airport," the airport spokesman said.
"Don't come to the airport - the airport is being evacuated. Flights have been canceled," the airport said on its official Twitter account.
It is too early to say the latest blasts at Brussels airport are linked with the arrest of the chief suspect in the Paris terrorist attacks, the police said.
Salah Abdeslam, suspected of masterminding the terrorist attack in Paris, and four other people were arrested during a large-scale special operation in Molenbeek (Belgium) on March 18. Jan Jambon said that the elimination of the terrorist cell may encourage other terrorists to act. He said the terrorist organization Daesh still has a large network in Europe, in particular, in Belgium and France. He added that was the reason why Belgium preferred to preserve level three level of terrorist threat.
An explosion has occurred at a subway station in Molenbeek (Brussels), which is located near the European quarter. A second explosion is reported to have taken place at the Schuman metro station near the buildings of the European Commission and the EU Council, after which all subway stations were closed in Brussels.
At the same time, three suicide belts packed with explosives have been found at the Brussels airport by police.
According to preliminary data, 17 people have been killed and dozens wounded after two blasts in the Brussels airport. According to St Luc hospital, at least 10 people were killed and 30 injured.
Belgian media reported that at least 13 people are dead and 35 injured.
The blasts at Brussels Airport were a suicide attack, Belgian TV reports.
A senior research officer of the Center for European Studies (University) at the Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Olenchenko, said in conversation with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that today's terrorist attack in Brussels is the result of serious omissions in the strategy of behavior of Western countries, which divided the terrorists into 'good' and 'bad'. "In particular, the example of Syria and Libya shows it. And that's why no one has any issues when it became clear that the persons who were involved in the terrorist attacks in France lived in Belgium. Moreover, it turned out that the Belgian law enforcement agencies knew about them, but they did not take any specific actions about them," he said.
"Secondly, the Western countries don't want to fight terrorism through collective means. They should have a good warning system, they must take the ability of national states into account and take preventive measures against those who are prone to radicalism. A third reason is the fact that ethnic policy in Western Europe has been built in such a way that a territory where ethnic migrants live was formed on its territory," the expert summed up.
"With regard to this particular fact, I think that this is a response to the arrest of one of the organizers of the terrorist attacks in Paris by the Belgian authorities. I would like to express my regret that these attacks happen and express hope that this will encourage Western countries to cooperate closer in the fight against terrorism," Olenchenko said.
The President of the National Strategy Institute, Mikhail Remizov, in his turn, expressed the view that "the problem lies in the fact that protection against terrorist threats is only a part of the problem." "A more general task is to defend themselves against the Islamist threat," he believes.
"The problem of counteraction to terrorism in some European countries is that they want to deal only with the consequences. The elimination and removal of the Islamist community should be the priority for Brussels and London, they need to squeeze it out of Europe," the expert.
"First of all, they need to limit the influence of the regional sponsors of terrorism in Europe" in order to conduct a more effective fight against this evil. "Second, to eliminate the possibility of jihadists returning to Europe: the deprivation of citizenship, a lifetime ban on entry. The Prime Minister of France Manuel Valls said that these people should not be prosecuted, they need to be reintegrated. The war in Syria and creation of Daesh became the catalyst for radicals. And religious extremism, Islamism in this particular case, has to be an unambiguous indication to the deprivation of citizenship and expulsion from the EU," Mikhail Remizov concluded.
