{"id":10484,"date":"2016-03-23T08:04:12","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T15:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/is-claims-deadly-bombings-in-brussels\/"},"modified":"2016-03-23T08:04:12","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T15:04:12","slug":"is-claims-deadly-bombings-in-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/is-claims-deadly-bombings-in-brussels\/","title":{"rendered":"IS claims deadly bombings in Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS \u2014<\/strong> Bombs exploded Tuesday at the Brussels airport and in the city\u2019s subway, killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens, as a European capital was again locked down amid heightened security threats. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks.<\/p>\n

The two airport blasts, at least one of them blamed on a suicide bomber, left behind a chaotic scene of splattered blood in the departure lounge as windows were blown out, ceilings collapsed and travelers streamed out of the smoky building.<\/p>\n

About an hour later, another bomb exploded on a rush-hour subway train near the European Union headquarters. Terrified passengers had to evacuate through darkened tunnels to safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we feared has happened,\u201d Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said. \u201cIn this time of tragedy, this black moment for our country, I appeal to everyone to remain calm but also to show solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgium raised its terror alert to the highest level, diverting planes and trains and ordering people to stay where they were for most of the workday.<\/p>\n

Authorities also released a photo taken from closed-circuit TV of three men pushing luggage carts, saying two of them apparently were the suicide bombers and that the third \u2014 dressed in a light-colored coat, black hat and glasses \u2014 was at large. They urged the public to contact them if they recognized him.<\/p>\n

Police later conducted raids in Brussels searching for one of the suspects, and found a nail-filled bomb, chemical products and an Islamic State flag in the search of a house in the Schaerbeek neighborhood, the state prosecutors\u2019 office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Airports across Europe \u2014 and in the New York area \u2014 tightened security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at war,\u201d French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after a crisis meeting in Paris. \u201cWe have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added French President Francois Hollande: \u201cTerrorists struck Brussels, but it was Europe that was targeted, and it is all the world which is concerned by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

European security officials have been bracing for a major attack for weeks and warned that the Islamic State group was actively preparing to strike. The arrest Friday of Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, heightened those fears, as investigators said many more people were involved than originally thought and that some are still on the loose.<\/p>\n

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks, saying in a post on the group\u2019s Amaq news agency that its extremists opened fire in the airport and \u201cseveral of them\u201d detonated suicide belts. It said another suicide attacker struck in the subway. The post claimed the attack was in response to Belgium\u2019s support of the international coalition arrayed against the group.<\/p>\n

Authorities found and neutralized a third bomb at the airport once the chaos after the two initial blasts had eased, said Florence Muls, a spokeswoman for the airport told The Associated Press. Bomb squads also detonated suspicious objects found in at least two locations elsewhere in the capital, but neither contained explosives, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Michel said there was no immediate evidence linking the attacks with Abdeslam. After his arrest, Abdeslam told authorities he had created a new network and was planning new attacks.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to \u201cdo whatever is necessary\u201d to help Belgian authorities seek justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people,\u201d Obama said in Havana, where he was closing a three-day visit.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s explosions at the airport in the Brussels suburb of Zaventem came shortly after 8 a.m., one of its busiest periods when thousands of people were inside. Belgian Health Minister Maggie de Block said 11 people were killed and 81 wounded. <\/p>\n

Eleven people had serious injuries, Marc Decramer of the Gasthuisberg hospital in Leuven told broadcaster VTM. The nails apparently came from one of the bombs.<\/p>\n

Zach Mouzoun, who arrived on a flight from Geneva about 10 minutes before the first blast, told BFM television that the second, louder explosion brought down ceilings and ruptured pipes, mixing water with victims\u2019 blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was atrocious. The ceilings collapsed,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was blood everywhere, injured people, bags everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were walking in the debris. It was a war scene,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Video from moments after the blasts showed travelers huddled next to check-in counters and lying near luggage and trolleys as dust and the cries of the wounded filled the air. Dazed people stumbled from the scene, some with clothes and shoes blown off.<\/p>\n

Anthony Deloos, an airport worker for Swissport, which handles check-in and baggage services, said the first explosion took place near the counters where customers pay for overweight bags. He and a colleague said the second blast hit near a Starbucks cafe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped into a luggage chute to be safe,\u201d Deloos said.<\/p>\n

The subway bombing came after 9 a.m., killing 20 people and wounding more than 100, Mayor Yvan Majeur said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe metro was leaving Maelbeek station for Schuman when there was a really loud explosion,\u201d said Alexandre Brans, 32, wiping blood from his face. \u201cIt was panic everywhere. There were a lot of people in the metro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Near the entrance to the station, rescue workers set up a makeshift medical treatment center in a pub. Dazed and shocked morning commuters streamed from the metro entrances as police tried to set up a security cordon.<\/p>\n

The airport was ordered closed for the rest of the day and CEO Arnaud Feist said the facility would be shut at least through Wednesday. About 600 flights in or out of Brussels were diverted or canceled, Muls said.<\/p>\n

The metro also was ordered closed as the city was locked down. By the end of the workday, city officials said residents could begin moving around on the streets of the capital and train stations were reopening. But Peter Mertens of the Belgian crisis center said the threat of more attacks \u201cis still real and serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least one and possibly two Kalashnikovs were found in the departure lounge at the airport, according to a European security official in contact with a Belgian police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation. It was not immediately clear if the firearms were used in the attacks.<\/p>\n

Travelers fled the airport as quickly as they could. In video shown on France\u2019s i-Tele television, men, women and children dashed from the terminal in different directions. Security officers patrolled a hall with blown-out paneling and ceiling panels covering the floor.<\/p>\n

Marc Noel, 63, was about to board a Delta flight to Atlanta, to return to his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. A Belgian native, Noel said he was in an airport shop buying automotive magazines when the first blast struck about 50 yards away.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were crying, shouting \u2014 children. It was a horrible experience,\u201d he said, adding that his decision to shop might have saved his life. \u201cI would probably have been in that place when the bomb went off.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press Writers Raf Casert, Raphael Satter and Angela Charlton in Brussels, Lori Hinnant in Paris and Paisley Dodds in London contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS \u2014 Bombs exploded Tuesday at the Brussels airport and in the city\u2019s subway, killing at least 31 people and wounding dozens, as a European capital was again locked down amid heightened security threats. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks. The two airport blasts, at least one of them blamed on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10484"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}