Brussels, Belgium - At least 13 persons have been reported dead and 35 others injured after two explosions were heard at Brussels Airport on Tuesday, Belgian media reported, even as Maalbeek train station staff also reported explosions, as Belgian authorities raised the country's terrorism alert from three to the maximum four.
Initial reports indicate one person dead at the airport blast scene. An airport source told journalists that staff have reinforced security at the airport.
Meanwhile, an explosion occurred at a metro station close to the European Union's institutions in the Belgian capital, subway staff told AFP. At least 15 persons were initially reported as injured.
The Belgium crisis center broadcast an advisory telling Brussels residents to "stay where you are".
The blast occurred shortly after 0800 GMT, in the morning rush hour, at Maalbeek station. TV images showed black smoke billowing from the station entrance.
The metro operator later said the service was being closed down.
The airport blast occurred shortly after 0800 GMT, in the morning rush hour, at Maalbeek station. TV images showed black smoke billowing from the station entrance.
The explosions in Brussels Tuesday are "an attack against democratic Europe," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said.
"It is an attack against democratic Europe. We will never accept that terrorists attack our open societies," he told news agency TT in a statement, while his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen denounced the blasts on Twitter as a "despicable attack".
Dutch counter-terrorism officials said Tuesday they were boosting security at national airports and tightening controls on the southern border with Belgium amid a series of blasts in Brussels.
"Out of precaution we are taking a number of additional measures in the Netherlands," the Dutch coordinator for terrorism and security said, adding there would be "extra police patrols at Schipol, Rotterdam and Eindhoven and border controls on the southern border".
Security measures have been reinforced at the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris following Tuesday's bombings in Brussels, an airport source told AFP.
A full deployment of security officials was underway at all eight terminals of the international airport and its two railway stations, with reinforced checks on trains arriving from Brussels, said the source.
Images on the website of public broadcaster RTBF showed smoke rising from the terminal building, where the windows had been shattered.
The broadcaster said the airport blasts hit shortly after 8:00am (0700 GMT) and that regional authorities had gone into emergency mode, with all flights in and out of the airport halted.
Image (above) posted on Twitter by The Telegraph (@Telegraph) shows smoke rising from the terminal building at Brussels Airport.
There was no immediate confirmation of the cause of the blasts or of any injuries, but RTBF cited a witness who said they had seen several wounded people.
Images showed people fleeing from the terminal building.
The blasts come days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels on Friday of Saleh Abdeslam, prime suspect in the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people in November, after four months on the run. Watch this video below, compiled by Chad de Guzman, InterAksyon.com:
source: interaksyon.com