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Two explosions ripped through Brussels airport Tuesday during the morning rush hour as hundreds of passengers were trying to check in. (March 22) AP
Two women wounded in Brussels Airport in Brussels, Belgium, after explosions were heard Tuesday, March 22, 2016. A developing situation left at least one person and possibly more dead in explosions that ripped through the departure hall at Brussels airport Tuesday, police said. All flights were canceled, arriving planes were being diverted and Belgium's terror alert level was raised to maximum, officials said.(Photo: Ketevan Kardava, AP)
BRUSSELS —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Explosions at the airport and a downtown<span style="color: Red;">*</span>metro stop<span style="color: Red;">*</span>rocked the city Tuesday, killing at least 26 people, wounding more than 100<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and shutting down all public transportation.
Terror alerts rose across Europe, in the U.S. and around the world.
Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed the blasts at the airport were caused by<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a suicide attack. The explosion<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>metro station was near<span style="color: Red;">*</span>buildings that house European Union institutions in central Brussels.
"We were fearing terrorist attacks and that has now happened," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said.
Maggie De Block, Belgium's federal health minister, said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the terrorist bombings at the airport killed at least 11 people and injured 81.Brussels'<span style="color: Red;">*</span>transportation agency, the STIB, said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>15 people died in the metro bombing.
Belgium<span style="color: Red;">*</span>raised its terror threat level to maximum and security was tightened across the region.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>The incident follows the arrest of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in November's Paris attacks who was captured in Brussels last week after a four-month manhunt.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Belgium's state news agency reported that shots were fired and shouting in Arabic was heard before the explosions at the airport.
In the U.S., Attorney General Loretta Lynch was coordinating how the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies could provide assistance to Brussels authorities, a Justice Department official said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly.
The Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington promised K-9 sweeps and additional patrols, and the New York Police Department was<span style="color: Red;">*</span>ramping up security at major transportation centers, similar to actions taken following the assaults in Paris, a law enforcement official said. The law enforcement official was not authorized to speak publicly.
There were no indications of specific threats against U.S. targets, authorities said.
In Brussels, the government instructed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>people to avoid the airport to make way for emergency<span style="color: Red;">*</span>responders. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Aviation authorities evacuated the airport,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>diverted incoming flights starting around 9 a.m. Tuesday and canceled all flights until 6 a.m. Wednesday.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Zaventem airport serves about 24 million people a year. It is located about 7 miles from north-east of central Brussels.
Immediately following the blast at the Metro station, transportation authorities shut down the entire subway system. Thirty minutes later, the officials suspended all public transportation, including trams and buses.
The airport evacuation left<span style="color: Red;">*</span>hundreds of people stuck on the parking lot and on the runway of the airport.
George Dallemagne, a member of Belgium's parliament, drove<span style="color: Red;">*</span>his wife to the airport shortly before<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the explosion occurred. She called at 7:58 a.m. to tell him about the explosion. She told him she heard two blasts and ran toward the Sheraton hotel across from the airport.
She saw people streaming<span style="color: Red;">*</span>out of the terminal with injuries that appeared to be caused by shattered glass and elderly people on stretchers. A part of the ceiling in the departures hall collapsed, he said.
Was abt to land in Brx when plane turned. Thoughts go to all affected by terrible acts of terror. Unacceptable attack on our free society
— Cecilia Malmström (@MalmstromEU) March 22, 2016
The EU, headquartered in Brussels,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>has told its staff to stay at home or remain inside buildings. The location of the metro stop is in a main thoroughfare of Brussels that connects the Schuman roundabout,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>where the European Commission and the Council of the EU are located, to the center of the city.
Michel also urged people to stay at home.
He called the attacks a "black day for Belgium" and urged calm. "We have to face this united," he said.
"We are at war," said French Prime Minister<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Manuel Valls. "We have been enduring acts of war for many months in Europe. And in the face of this war, we need an every minute mobilization." In Paris in November, 130 people were killed in terror attacks
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Images on social media showed smoke rising from the airport and panic at the entrance to the Maelbeek metro station.
Alex Rossi, a journalist for Sky News who was in the duty-free area of the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>airport at the time of the explosions, told the British broadcaster:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"There was panic, people trying to find shelter where they were after we heard those two explosions. I could feel the building move. There was also dust and smoke as well.”
Simon O’Connor, who works for the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>European Commission in Brussels,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>told the Financial Times he was in the airport's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>parking lot when he heard the first explosion and thought it had something to do with construction work.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He heard the second explosion minutes later.
“I walked to the edge of the car park and you could see a lot of people looking distraught,” he said. “The whole side of the terminal building was blown out. A lot of people had blood on their faces, leg injuries. People began pouring out of the building.”
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Hjelmgaard reported from Berlin; Reuter reported from Brussels. Contributing: Kevin Johnson in Washington, D.C.
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