Today, Sunday, Belgian police arrested four people on suspicion of exchanging messages related to preparing for a “terrorist attack,” according to what the federal prosecutor in charge of conducting the investigation reported.
Prosecutor's spokesman Eric van der Sypt said that those involved, three minors “in their late teens” and an 18-year-old young man, were arrested during raids in the capital, Brussels, and the cities of Nineveh, Charleroi, and Liège.
He added that he suspected them of planning a terrorist attack in Belgium.
The Belgian Francophone Radio and Television (RTBF) reported that the arrests, which took place today, were the result of a police operation aimed at identifying people “potentially violent and suspected of links to extremism.”
No weapons or explosives were found. The police confiscated mobile phones and laptops to examine their contents, confirming information reported by the Belgian Francophone Broadcasting Corporation and the HLN news channel.
Van der Sypt explained that the messages exchanged between the four suspects were “disturbing enough to prompt us to intervene and conduct raids.”
He added, “It's not that they were planning something tomorrow, but that the matter was close enough to intervene.”
The young age of the suspects reinforced the authorities' suspicions.
“Controlling them is easy,” the spokesman said. If someone gives them a gun, for example, things can happen very quickly. “So, we didn’t want to take any risks.”
The four suspects are currently being interrogated, with the investigating judge determining the action to be taken in this case.
The Belgian authorities have been on alert since 2016, when Brussels witnessed a double suicide attack at Zaventem Airport and on the subway, killing 32 people.
Last October, a person shot and killed two Swedish football fans in Brussels before being shot by police.
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