Suspected suicide bomber fatally shot after Brussels station blast

2017-06-21 4

BRUSSELS — A suspected suicide bomber was fatally shot by Belgian soldiers after a small explosion went off in Brussels Central Station on Tuesday evening.

Local media La Libre reported that the attacker was a man aged from 30 to 35, wearing a backpack and an explosive belt. Reports say he detonated a device when the soldiers in the station took notice of him.

Station employee Nicolas Van Herrewegen was quoted in various news reports saying the man shouted "Allahu Akbar" before detonating something on a luggage trolley.

Soldiers opened fire on the man after the explosion. Authorities later confirmed the man was killed. His identity has not yet been confirmed.

“This is considered as a terrorist attack,” Belgian federal prosecutor's office spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt said in a news conference outside Brussels Gare Centrale station.

The blast came just a day after an assailant rammed an explosive-laden car into a police van in Paris, and another man targeting Muslims mowed down a group of people near a London mosque in a separate incident on Monday.