Brussels attacks: Isis flag and nail bomb found in raid – live

Belgium’s interior minister Jan Jambon has told RTL TV that authorities knew that some kind of extremist act was being prepared in Europe but that they were surprised by the scale of the attacks in Brussels.

Jambon said Tuesday that “it was always possible that more attacks could happen but we never could have imagined something of this scale.”

As Jambon said that “we had no information about this, but we know that things were moving in Europe, in different countries, in France, in Germany, here.”

He said the Belgian authorities have no information about the planning of “any kind of action in Brussels at this time.”

The Belgian health minister Maggie De Block has just spoken to Belgian broadcaster VTM and said there were 250 injured and 31 dead.

11 killed at Brussels Airport and 20 at the Maelbeek metro station.

There have been several conflicting reports on the numbers of dead and injured from both attacks. We will use De Block’s numbers until the next official update.

The Belgian authorities have opened an emergency phone line: +32 2 506 711.

The Brussels government has invited the Belgian population to observe a minute of silence, tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12pm.



theguardian