Brussels (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Last night at 9 pm an explosion shook on Brussels Central Railway Station. A man was killed by the Belgian police after a bomb exploded. In a late-night press conference federal prosecution spokesman Eric Van der Sypt said that the episode was being treated as a suspected terrorist attack. That was enough to put the Belgian capital on lock down in fear for nearly a year after the serious bombings in 2016. The law enforcement forces evacuated the central station while the Grand Place, less than 400 meters away, was instantly emptied.
Nicolas Van Herrewegen, a Belgium State Railways employee who witnessed the incident said: "I was walking on the track when I heard a man shouting. He was talking about jihadists and stuff like that. At one point he shouted "Allahu Akbar" and detonated a small suitcase, holding it next to him. Then people started to flee. Everyone fled. At this point I went back to the track and warned my colleagues that they had to evacuate the station. "
On this occasion, there were no consequences for people's lives except for the attacker killed by the police. But the attack contributes to maintaining a climate of tension in the heart of Europe. The incident in Belgium came one day after a Muslim man was shot and killed near a mosque in London and a radical Islamic with his car loaded with gas weapons and bombs rammed a police vehicle in Paris on the Champs-Elysee. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel saluted the "courage" of the security forces and convened a Security Council meeting this morning.
