BRUSSELS (AP) — At least 13 people have been killed in a series of explosions in Brussels at the airport and at a subway station, according to media sources there. People in Brussels are being told to remain where they are.
At least one person was killed when two explosions ripped through the departure hall at Brussels airport Tuesday, police said. All flights were canceled, arriving planes were being diverted and Belgium’s terror alert level was raised to maximum.
“One person has died and perhaps there are several more,” said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the situation was developing.
There was also a report of an explosion in the Brussels subway system. There are also casualties there.
The explosions hit at the middle of the busiest time at the airport, which serves the city that is the capital of the 28-nation EU. NATO is also headquartered in the region.
Smoke was seen billowing out of the terminal after Tuesday morning’s blasts.
Amateur video shown on France’s i-Tele television showed passengers including a child running with a backpack dashing out of the terminal in different directions as they tugged luggage, Another image showed a security officer patrolling inside a hall with blown-out paneling and what appeared to be ceiling insulation covering the floor.
“I knew it was an explosion because I’ve been around explosions before,” said Denise Brandt, an American woman interviewed by Sky television.
“I felt the explosion, the way it feels through your body. And we just looked at each other and I said ‘Let’s go this way.’ It was over there. There was just this instinct to get away from it. Then we saw people running, crying, toward us. So I knew we were going in the right direction and away from it. ”
With three runways in the shape of a “Z,” the airport connects Europe’s capital to 226 destinations around the world and handled nearly 23.5 million passengers in 2015.
Marie-Odile Lognard, a traveller who was lining up in the departures hall for a flight to Abu Dhabi, told BFM television that people panicked after the first explosion about 20 meters from her and that a second explosion about 15 seconds later caused parts of the ceiling to collapse.
Passengers were led onto the tarmac and the crisis center urged people not to come to the airport.
The explosions happened only days after Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people, was arrested in Brussels.
Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this story.
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