In this photo from June, 2016, police guard Brussels central station after it was evacuated for security reasons. Police have shown a heightened sense of security since a March terrorist attack in Brussels killed 32 people.(Photo: Julien Warnand, EPA)
Two brothers have been arrested in Belgium on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Saturday, although a search<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of seven houses<span style="color: Red;">*</span>linked to the case<span style="color: Red;">*</span>turned up no weapons or explosives.
Nourredine H., 33, and his brother Hamza H. were taken in for questioning<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Friday evening in the city of Liege in the Mons region.
"Based on provisional results from the investigation, it appears that there were plans to carry out an attack somewhere in Belgium," the federal prosecution office said in a statement.
The brothers apparently were seeking "material" including weapons, the Belgian public broadcaster<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
RTBF<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reported.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Nourredine<span style="color: Red;">*</span>recently traveled extensively in Europe and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>had numerous contacts with France that raised suspicions.
A Belgian judge will decide Saturday whether the pair can be held beyond<span style="color: Red;">*</span>24 hours, the Associated Press reported.
Officials said the case was not connected with the March terrorist attacks in Brussels<span style="color: Red;">*</span>in which 32 people were killed or<span style="color: Red;">*</span>recent terrorist attacks in France.
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Belgian Ministry of the Interior has found that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>457 Belgians — nearly a third of them women and children<span style="color: Red;">*</span>—<span style="color: Red;">*</span>went to fight with jihadist groups at one time or another in Syria or Iraq, or<span style="color: Red;">*</span>intended to go there, RTBF reports.
Of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>457 people,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>266 are still in Syria or Iraq and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>90 are<span style="color: Red;">*</span>missing and were probably killed, according to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Belgium's Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis.
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