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Brussels Lockdown Extended for Another Week

Brussels Lockdown Extended for Another Week

Brussels extends lockdown alert for another week, due to the terrorism threats initiated last Saturday.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said at a press conference on Monday that the alert level four will continue, and qualified the threat as “serious and imminent”, although schools and the subway could reopen on Wednesday. Michel also said the government is doing “everything in our power to keep the situation under control”.

In a series of raids last Friday in the city of Molenbeek, Belgian police found automatic weapons, and other materials commonly used to make suicide vests. Shortly after, the terror alert was raised in the capital, to prevent Paris-like terrorist attacks in highly populated areas of Brussels.

The police were trying to find Salah Abdeslam. The 26-year-old Belgium-born, and most-wanted man in Europe, was associated with the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, along with his brother Brahim, one of the suicide bombers that killed 130 people that night. Since the attacks in Paris, Salah has been on the run. Authorities suspect that Salah may have returned to Brussels, to prepare new terror attacks.

The late-night raids continued Saturday and Sunday, and 16 people were arrested. It was informed that five more were detained on Monday. The 21 people arrested were said to be friends and relatives of Abdeslam, and the police wanted to question them about the conversations they had with Salah before the Paris attacks.

Heavily-armed police officers and soldiers have patrolled the city since Saturday. The government advised the population to avoid shopping centers, public transportation, restaurants, stadiums, museums, and other public places.

The U.S. Embassy allowed its staff to work from home, in case they had transportation issues.
Belgium police asked social media users to remain silent on Twitter, to avoid revealing information about the police operation on Sunday. In response, Twitter users started to post cat pictures with the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown.

As a sign of gratitude, the Belgian police tweeted an image of a cat food bowl with the text: “For the cats that helped us last night… help yourselves!”.
The threat level will be revised next Monday.

Image Copyright: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images

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