Police are under pressure after it emerged that they knew about the two brothers who blew themselves up; a third suspected bomber was spotted on airport’s CCTV footage
Brussels: Police in Brussels yesterday launched a desperate hunt for two men suspected of taking part in the Islamic State bombings that struck at the very heart of Europe.
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CCTV camera footage shows three men who are suspected of taking part in the attacks at Belgium’s Zaventem Airport. Pic/AFP
Under-fire Belgian security officials are tracking one man identified at the scene of a suicide attack on the metro, as well as a suspected bomber seen on CCTV camera footage at Brussels airport.
European security authorities faced mounting pressure after it emerged that two brothers who blew themselves up at the airport and on a metro train were known to police and that one of them had been deported from Turkey as a “foreign terrorist fighter”. Flags in Brussels hung at half-mast as Belgium mourned the 31 people killed in Tuesday’s attacks, while doctors battled to save scores more injured in the carnage.
The latest bombings, coming four months after Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris, have raised fears of further strikes in Europe, which is battling to deal with home-grown extremists.
EU justice and interior ministers will convene in Brussels for an emergency meeting to work out a plan to address the threat to Europe posed by jihadists and the application of anti-terrorism laws across the bloc.
Third suspect
Yesterday, prosecutors said brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui had carried out attacks at Zaventem airport and Maalbeek station, while police sources named bomb-maker Najim Laachraoui as a second airport bomber. Police have launched a massive manhunt for the third airport suspect, seen wearing a hat and white jacket on CCTV camera footage from Zaventem departure hall, whose explosive-packed luggage failed to go off with the two other suicide bombers.
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