Eight people were arrested in Belgium on Monday evening as part of two investigations on suspicion of a “terrorist attack”, the federal prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday (March 28).
According to a judicial source contacted by the AFP news agency, those arrested are “very young radicalised people” from the jihadist movement. Possible targets have not yet been determined at this time. The public prosecutor’s office stated that in both cases a planned attack had been assumed and that there were links between the two cases.
Five house searches were carried out in Molenbeek (Brussels region), Eupen (east) and in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium (north) in the three Antwerp districts of Merksem, Borgerhout and Deurne as part of the first case being investigated in Antwerp. At least two of the five suspects are suspected of “preparing to carry out a terrorist attack in Belgium”.
In the second case, investigated in Brussels, three suspects were arrested in Molenbeek, Schaerbeek (another Brussels municipality) and Zaventem, very close to the capital. These people are also suspected of having planned an attack on Belgian soil. France24