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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Claire Phipps and Matthew Weaver

Belgian ministers 'offered to resign' over Brussels attacks – as it happened

Who are the Belgium terror attack suspects? – video explainer

Belgium’s prime minister Charles Michel says Belgian’s democracy won’t be broken.

In a couple of defiant tweets issued, after he laid a wreath for the victims at a ceremony attended by King Philippe and EU president Jean-Claude Juncker, Michel said: “Our country is in shock, but we are strong and confident.”

He also tweeted: “The cries of distress, the sirens and the apocalyptic images will remain forever engraved in us.”

We’re going to pause our live coverage for now. You can read our latest news wrap here:

Updated

Summary

Here’s a summary of the latest developments:

  • Belgium’s Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens reportedly offered to resign amid mounting concern that Belgium failed to act on warnings about Ibrahim el-Bakraoui before he blew himself up at Brussels airport. Their offers were declined by prime minister Charles Michel, Jan Jambon, told Le Soir.
  • Turkey said it had deported Ibrahim el-Bakraoui to the Netherlands in the summer of 2015 and had warned Belgium that he was a suspected foreign fighter. An official told Reuters that Bakraoui was deported a second time in August.
  • A lawyer for Salah Abdeslam, the surviving member of November’s attacks on Paris says his client didn’t know of the plans to attack Brussels. Sven Mary also said Abdeslam no longer plans to fight an extradition request and wants to return to France as soon as possible.
  • Belgium police are working to identify a man filmed in the company of metro train bomber Khalid el-Bakraoui shortly before he blew himself up. France’s Le Monde and the Belgian broadcaster RTBF said the man was carrying a big bag and was considered a potential fifth attacker.
  • Najim Laachraoui has been tentatively identified as the second airport bomber by French and Belgian media reports, but this has not been confirmed. Reports on Tuesday that he had escaped and was later arrested proved to be wrong.
  • The identity of a third man seen at Zavantem airport has not yet been established.Officials said he is thought to have fled the scene after his own bomb failed to detonate. A manhunt is underway.
  • 31 people are confirmed to have died in the two attacks, and 300 wounded. Of these, 150 are still being treated in hospitals, 61 of whom are in intensive care. Four patients remain unidentified.
  • Three people have so far been officially identified among the dead: Adelma Tapia Ruiz, Leopold Hecht and Oliver Delespesse. Two unnamed Moroccans are reported to have died, as fears grow for those missing including Briton David Dixon and Indian Raghavendran Ganesh.
  • Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol has warned that a network of at least 5,000 terrorists suspects is more dangerous than previously feared. He confirmed the connection of the Brussels bombers to November’s attacks in Paris and warned of new “aggressive” strategy by Islamic State militants to attack Europe.

Updated

Fears are growing for the fate of the one Briton known to be missing after the bomb attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, writes Peter Walker.

David Dixon, a freelance computer programmer whose age has been given variously as 51 or 53, is originally from Hartlepool but has lived in Brussels for the past 15 years.

Trump interview features in Isis-linked video

A new propaganda video put out by a group linked to Islamic State militants, has used an interview of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a recruiting device, George Washington University’s Program on Extremism points out.

The video features a burning image of a poster of Trump, over the audio of an interview he gave earlier this week saying: “Brussels was one of the great cities of the world 20 years ago and safe ... now it’s a horror show.”

The video then shows images of jihadis in action with the caption “Brothers rise up. Claim your victory!”.

Updated

Angelique Chrisafis has more on Salah Abdeslam’s desire to be transferred to France “as soon as possible” to face charges there.

Abdeslam has been been held in a high security jail since his dramatic arrest at a Brussels flat on Friday, four days before suicide bombers struck a Brussels airport and metro in the most devastating attacks in Belgian history.

The 26-year-old, who before his capture was Europe’s most wanted man, had been on the run for four months after the November Paris attacks, which killed 130 people. He is believed to be the last survivor from the cell of 10 men who carried out the massacre.

The ongoing investigation suggests Abdeslam and a wider circle of suspected logistics operatives in the Paris attacks could have had links to the suspects in theBrussels attacks.

Abdeslam’s lawyer, Sven Mary, when asked if his client had prior knowledge about the Brussels suicide bombings, told journalists outside a Brussels court: “He didn’t know [about] it.”

Updated

More than 48 hours after the Brussels attacks, the search for the missing continues, as friends and relatives frantically look for loved ones, writes Jennifer Rankin.

According to the latest tally, 31 people lost their lives in Tuesday’s explosions at the airport and metro, and more than 300 were injured. Belgian media report that 150 remain in hospital, 61 in intensive care, while four people have not been identified.

Reflecting Brussels international mix, people from around 40 countries were killed or injured in the attacks, a factor that is complicating final identifications.

As Belgium marks a second day of national mourning, family and friends have taken to Facebook and Twitter to search for loved ones.

Sabrina Esmael Fazal, 24, has not been seen since Tuesday and is thought to have taken the metro to school. “She must have taken the metro passing through Maalbeek at the moment of the disaster on her way to school,” states an appeal for help posted on Facebook.

On Thursday morning family and friends were still searching for Loubna Lafkiri, a gym teacher, also believed to have taken the metro.

Not far from Maelbeek metro station, is a notice appealing for any information about Johanna Atlegrim, aged 30, believed to have been on the metro during the attacks.

Family and friends are also searching for Polish national Janina Pansewicz, 61.

Yves Ciyombo Cibuabua, 28, “was certainly at Maalbeek at the moment of the attacks”, his stepsister writes in a Facebook post. “We are still without news of him. We have tried everything.”

Updated

Belgian ministers 'offered to resign' over the attacks

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel (right) is reported to have refused to accept the resignation of Interior Minister Jan Jambon (left) and Minister of Justice Koen Geens (centre).
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel (right) is reported to have refused to accept the resignation of Interior Minister Jan Jambon (left) and Minister of Justice Koen Geens (centre). Photograph: Laurent Dubrule/EPA

Belgium’s interior and justice ministers offered their resignations over the Brussels attacks but they were rejected by Prime Minister Charles Michel, Reuters reports citing Belgian media.

Interior Minister Jan Jambon and Justice Minister Koen Geens were not immediately available for comment.

Belgian authorities are facing embarrassment after Turkey said on Wednesday that last year Ankara expelled back to Europe Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on Tuesday, and warned Belgium he was a militant.

“Belgium ignored our warning that this person is a foreign fighter,” President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday

Updated

A fourth possible victim of the Brussels terrorist attack has been named as 51-year-old baggage handler Fabienne Vansteenkiste, writes Isabel Togoh.

Sky News cites local media reports saying that Vansteenkiste had finished her shift at the airport when the two bombs exploded. Her family says it is “realistic” about the situation, Sky said.

Vansteenkiste is still listed as missing on a website set up to track those caught up in the attacks.

“A number” of US remain unaccounted for including government employees, the US state department has said.

Deputy spokesman Mark Toner said no US citizens are known to have been killed but the situation remains “very fluid”. He added that there were growing fears about those who have not been heard from. And he confirmed that 12 US citizens were injured in the attacks.

Toner told reporters that there were so many US citizens either working in or visiting Belgium that it was impossible to give an accurate figure for the number unaccounted for.

He said: “We try to go through that list to try and identify the whereabouts of folks but we’re constantly adding to that list as loved ones or family call in to say that they haven’t reached or been able to contact someone.”

He added that US government personnel or their family members are among those unaccounted for.

The US secretary of state John Kerry is due in Brussels tomorrow to “formally express the condolences of the United States for the loss of life” and discuss security with Belgian and EU officials.


Summary

Here’s a summary of the latest developments:

  • A lawyer for Salah Abdeslam, the surviving member of November’s attacks on Paris says his client didn’t know of the plans to attack Brussels. Sven Mary also said Abdeslam no longer plans to fight an extradition request and wants to return to France as soon as possible.
  • Belgium police are working to identify a man filmed in the company of metro train bomber Khalid el-Bakraoui shortly before he blew himself up. France’s Le Monde and the Belgian broadcaster RTBF said the man was carrying a big bag and was considered a potential fifth attacker.
  • Najim Laachraoui has been tentatively identified as the second airport bomber by French and Belgian media reports, but this has not been confirmed. Reports on Tuesday that he had escaped and was later arrested proved to be wrong.
  • The identity of a third man seen at Zavantem airport has not yet been established. Officials said he is thought to have fled the scene after his own bomb failed to detonate. A manhunt is underway.
  • Turkey said it had deported Ibrahim el-Bakraoui to the Netherlands in the summer of 2015 and had warned Belgium that he was a suspected foreign fighter. An official told Reuters that Bakraoui was deported a second time in August.
  • 31 people are confirmed to have died in the two attacks, and 300 wounded. Of these, 150 are still being treated in hospitals, 61 of whom are in intensive care. Four patients remain unidentified.
  • Three people have so far been officially identified among the dead: Adelma Tapia Ruiz, Leopold Hecht and Oliver Delespesse. Two unnamed Moroccans are reported to have died, as fears grow for those missing including Briton David Dixon and Indian Raghavendran Ganesh.
  • Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol has warned that a network of at least 5,000 terrorists suspects is more dangerous than previously feared. He confirmed the connection of the Brussels bombers to November’s attacks in Paris and warned of new “aggressive” strategy by Islamic State militants to attack Europe.

Downing Street said the number of UK citizens now known to have been injured in the attack is six, four of whom have been discharged from hospital, PA reports.


The other two are still receiving treatment though the spokeswoman said she was unable to give any information about their conditions.

David Dixon
David Dixon Photograph: Handout/PA

She said there were “stills concerns” about one unaccounted for British national - a reference to David Dixon, 53, originally from Hartlepool but living in Brussels.

He sent a message to his family telling them he was okay after the airport attacks - but has not been seen since the explosion ripped through the Metro an hour later.

Downing Street said a British police expert in victim identification is being sent to Belgium as part of a package of support being provided by the UK.

Another meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee took place on Thursday.

Belgian government ministers have been meeting this morning to review what it knew about Ibrahim el-Bakraoui before he blew himself up at the airport, state broadcaster RTBF reports.

The meeting comes after Turkey said it had informed Brussels that Bakraoui had been deported to the Netherlands.

Bakraoui was released on parole in Belgium for criminal acts not related to terrorism.

Two Moroccan women died in the attacks and three other people are missing, including a university professor, according to the Moroccan Times, writes Haroon Siddique and Isabel Togoh.

It said another four Moroccans were injured. The Times did not name any of the dead, missing or injured.

It cited the Moroccan embassy in Brussels as the source of its information but when the Guardian contacted the embassy it said it did not have any information on Moroccan victims of the atrocity.

The number of Moroccans in Belgium has been put at between 400,000 and 500,000.

Ibrahim El Bakraoui is pictured in a July 2015 in an image taken by Gaziantep police.
Ibrahim el-Bakraoui is pictured in a July 2015 in an image taken by Gaziantep police. Photograph: STR/AP

A Turkish official has told Reuters that Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, who blew himself up at Brussels airport, was deported from Turkey a second time last year.

Last night Turkey’s prime minster Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Bakraoui was caught in Turkey in June 2015, and deported to the Netherlands.

He said Turkey reported the deportation to the Belgian authorities in July 2015 adding that Belgium “ignored” Turkey’s warning that the attacker was a militant.

Now an official has told Reuters Bakraoui travelled back to Turkey and was deported again in August.

The official said Bakraoui was deported on police suspicion that he was a foreign fighter, but no crime was committed in Turkey.

Turkish police released a photograph of Bakraoui that was taken last July in Turkey.

Belgian broadcasters will fall silent at 2.30pm [1330 GMT] as part of a nationwide minute’s silence in honour of the victims of Tuesday’s attack, RTBF reports.

This is the second day of national mourning in Belgian.

On Wednesday 2,000 people gathered for 60 seconds of quiet at noon, in front of the steps of the Brussels stock exchange.

Channel 4 News managed to film Abdeslam’s laywer Sven Mary denying that his client knew anything about the Brussels attacks.

“He didn’t know it,” Mary told reporter Paraic O’Brien.

The last call of missing Indian citizen Raghavendran Ganesh has been tracked to the Brussels metro, writes Haroon Siddique.

India’s minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj confirmed that Ganesh was travelling in the metro when he made the call.

His mother, Annapoorni Ganeshan, told the News Minute that he had visited India last month when his wife, who lives in Chennai, gave birth to a child.

Ganeshan has worked for technology company Infosys in Brussels for four years.

His mother said:

They said that his name does not appear in the casualty list nor in the injured list. They are leaving to one hall where a few attack victims with minor injuries have been lodged for treatment.They are saying some people are conscious some others are unconscious, so I am just hoping the Infosys officials recognise him. His friends are also looking for him in the city.



Updated

A court hearing in Brussels on Abdeslam’s detention has been postponed until 7 April, Angelique Chrisafis reports from Brussels.

The court agreed to a request to the delay the hearing, from Abdeslam’s lawyer, Sven Mary.

Speaking outside the court Mary confirmed that Abdeslam “wants to be transferred to France as soon as possible”.

Le Monde reminds us that Mary had previously indicated that he would oppose the extradition request.

Mary has told reporters that Abdeslam did not know about the attacks on Brussels airport and the metro, AFP report.

Sven Mary
Sven Mary Photograph: Dirk Waem/AFP/Getty Images

Reuters has more on Abdeslam’s apparent desire to return to France.

Salah Abdeslam, the prime surviving suspect for November’s Paris attacks, will no longer fight extradition to France but wants to return to his home country to explain himself as soon as possible, his lawyer said on Thursday.

“Salah Abdeslam has asked me to inform you that he wishes to leave for France as quickly as possible,” Sven Mary said in comments broadcast on BFM TV, speaking from Brussels.

Mary said he hoped this could happen “as soon as possible”, adding that Abdeslam “wants to explain himself in France”.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said last week that at worst it could take three months for Abdeslam to be handed over to France after he said he would oppose extradition to his homeland.

Updated

Sven Mary awyer of key suspect in the Paris terror attacks Salah Abdeslam, arrives to the Council Chamber of Brussels.
Sven Mary awyer of key suspect in the Paris terror attacks Salah Abdeslam, arrives to the Council Chamber of Brussels. Photograph: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

Outside the Brussels Palais de Justice there was a huge security presence with army and armed police ahead of Salah Abdeslam’s extradition hearing, writes Angelique Chrisafis.

Abdelsam’s lawyer Sven Mary is currently inside at a meeting with Belgian magistrates in a pre-scheduled hearing to discuss whether to keep the Paris attack suspect in detention.

Abdeslam is not thought to be in the court. He has been held in a high security prison near Bruges. Mary had said earlier that he would ask for a full hearing to be postponed.

Mary was attacked last night, according to Le Soir. “I had to close my office to ensure the safety of my staff ,” he told the paper.

London landmarks were lit up in the colours of Belgian flag last night in tribute to the victims of the attacks.

Salah Abdeslam
Salah Abdeslam Photograph: DSK/AFP/Getty Images

Salah Abdeslam, the surviving member of the Paris attacks, wants to be extradited to France “as quickly as possible” his lawyer has said, according to the French broadcaster BFM TV.

Abdeslam was captured in Brussels last Friday after four months on the run.

A Belgian judge is to due decide today whether he should be held in custody for another month. France is seeking his extradition to face terrorism charges.

Europol warns of new ‘aggressive’ strategy by Isis

Europol director Rob Wainwright
Europol director Rob Wainwright Photograph: Martijn Beekman/EPA

The EU’s law enforcement agency Europol has warned that Brussels attacks shows that a network of at least 5,000 terrorists suspects is more dangerous than previously feared.

Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, confirmed the connection of the Brussels bombers to November’s attacks in Paris and warned of new “aggressive” strategy by Islamic State [Isis] militants to attack Europe.

“We are concerned about the extent to which we are now uncovering a more widespread network than was first feared,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Wainwright said he could not talk in public about the identity of the man seen in CCTV footage at Brussels airport dressed in a white jacket.

But he said: “We are faced by a more dangerous, a more urgent security threat from so-called Islamic State. It threatens not just France and Belgium but a number of European countries at the same time ... It is certainly the most serious threat we have faced in at least a decade.”

Wainwright said the “innovative use of the internet to radicalise and recruit larger sections of the populations” by Isis militants posed an “unprecedented threat”.

He said: “The nature of the threat, the way it is dispersed across a largely unconnected randomised community of a least 5,000 individuals means it is not possible to reduce the threat to zero. So we have to redouble our efforts.”

Wainwright is due to attend today’s meeting of interior ministers in Brussels to discuss better ways of sharing intelligence in different countries.

He added: “It is difficult to know how many [militants] are on active duty in preparing to launch attacks in Europe, but we are concerned about a community of 5,000 suspects that have been radicalised in Europe, that have travelled to Syria and Iraq for conflict experience, some of whom have since come back to Europe. And some of those will be among those that are taking part in what is clearly a new strategy that so-called Islamic State have launched in the west to take us on, in a more aggressive way to use teams of well-trained, well-planned terrorists to carry out multi attacks aimed at mass causalities.”

Henry McDonald reports from Dublin on increased security at Ireland’s main airport and port.

Armed Irish police are to be deployed for the first time at the Republic’s major airport and Dublin Port, in response to the attacks in Brussels.

Armed officers from the Garda Siochana’s Regional Support Unit will have a presence at Dublin airport and the city’s main ferry port.

Up until Tuesday’s atrocity in Belgium there was no armed Garda presence at either the airport or the port in the Irish capital.

The armed unit has already been seen on Dublin’s streets in the aftermath of the eruption of a major gangland feud between two notorious rival Irish criminals, which last night claimed its third life.

Although the Irish Republic is neutral and has never been a member of Nato, there is considerable controversy over the use of the country’s second airport Shannon by the US military as a transport hub for its personnel from North America to Europe and beyond.


Attackers and suspects: what we know

The Bakraoui brothers

Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29, detonated one of two devices that exploded at Zaventem airport. His younger brother Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27, was responsible for a third explosion, in a metro carriage at Maelbeek station.

Both men died in the attacks. Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was identified from his fingerprints. Police later found a computer containing a last statement from him, in which he said he felt “in a rush, not knowing what to do, being hunted everywhere, not being safe”, and feared “if this goes on, ending up … in a cell”.

The brothers, both Belgian nationals, had long criminal records, although not for terrorism offences. But police had been searching for them before the Brussels attacks after investigators linked them to the attacks in Paris last November.

Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, left, and Khalid el-Bakraoui.
Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, left, and Khalid el-Bakraoui. Photograph: EPA

Najim Laachraoui

(FILES) This undated file photo released on March 21, 2016 by the federal police on demand of Brussels’ king prosecutor shows Najim Laachraoui,

Najim Laachraoui has been named in Belgian media reports – but not officially confirmed – as the second airport suicide bomber.

Like the Bakraoui brothers, he was already being hunted by police in connection with the attacks on Paris, for which he was suspected of being a bomb-maker.

In the confusion following the attacks, local media originally reported that 24-year-old Laachraoui was the suspect in the light-coloured coat and hat believed to have fled the airport without detonating his bomb, and that he had later been arrested. But those reports turned out to be wrong.

Before the Brussels attacks, Belgian prosecutors said DNA evidence had identified Moroccan-born Laachraoui as an accomplice of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam.

The third man at the airport

Police continue to search for a man seen in CCTV images wearing a hat, sunglasses and light-coloured coat. He is believed to have fled the airport after his suitcase bomb failed to detonate.

Brussels Airport explosions

The ‘second metro bomber’

French newspaper Le Monde and Belgian broadcaster RTBF report that a second man, carrying a large bag, was seen on CCTV in the Brussels metro with Khalid el-Bakraoui.

Le Monde says police are now searching for a potential second accomplice.

Angelique Chrisafis in Brussels writes:

As the investigation continues, links are being examined to all suspects who have been arrested in connection to terrorism offences in recent months in Belgium, particularly those who were detained after raids relating to the Paris attacks.

One key figure who was arrested in Belgium in the days following the Paris attacks in November is Mohamed Bakkali, 28. He was suspected of renting two of the Belgian hide-outs for the Paris attackers.

During searches at Bakkali’s wife’s house in November, police found a 10-minute film shot by a fixed-camera hidden in a bush, which showed the home of a senior Belgian nuclear official in the Flanders region, and the official coming and going.

Bakkali has been in prison since his arrest at the end of November.

In a report that has not been confirmed by Belgian prosecutors, the Belgian state broadcaster RTBF said Bakkali’s name appeared in the will left on a computer thrown in a bin by the Brussels airport bomber Ibrahim el-Bakraoui.

In this will, Bakraoui complained of feeling hunted and said he didn’t want to end up in a prison cell like another man, whom he did not name.

Updated

Salah Abdeslam, the Paris attacker arrested in Brussels last week, who is known to have been linked to this week’s suicide bombers, is due in court this morning for a hearing.

More links between the Paris and Brussels attackers are emerging; here’s what we know so far:

Angelique Chrisafis in Brussels writes:

Some 48 hours after the attacks, the police investigation in Brussels is focused on identifying and finding possible accomplices or other attackers.

France’s Le Monde and the Belgian broadcaster RTBF have reported that police are working to identify a man carrying a big bag who was filmed by CCTV cameras in the company of the metro suicide bomber Khalid el-Bakraoui just before Bakraoui blew himself up.

RTBF reported that this man’s identity was not known, and it was not clear if he had died in the attack or had escaped.

European security chiefs will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday in the wake of the twin terrorist attacks on the city.

Some world leaders have raised questions about the ease of access to Europe by terrorists, and criticised Belgium’s record of responding to the threat of terrorism before the deadly attacks in its capital.

Numerous European leaders have also voiced concern that “the future of Schengen is at stake” and that free movement between EU borders has weakened security.

The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, called for approval of a passenger name records directive requiring airlines to hand over passenger details to EU countries.

The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, called for a “security union” and said he hoped the EU would adopt proposals by the commission for the protection of external borders.

RTBF also reports that a “will” found by police on a computer, apparently written by suicide bomber Ibraham el-Bakraoui, mentioned a man called Mohammed Bakkali.

Bakkali was arrested in November. He was said to be connected to an apartment in Auvelais, near the central Belgian city of Namur, that was used by the Paris attackers.

RTBF speculates that it could be Bakkali – rather than captured Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam – to whom Bakraoui was referring when he said:

If I go on like this [I] will end up in a prison cell next to him.

Belgian broadcaster RTBF also reports that a second man was apparently seen in the metro with Khalid el-Bakraoui. It’s not clear what the source is for this information, and neither RTBF nor Le Monde have the images.

‘Second metro attacker’ – reports

French newspaper Le Monde reports that a second man, carrying a large bag, was seen on CCTV in the Brussels metro with Khalid el-Bakraoui, who authorities say carried out the suicide bombing at Maelbeek station.

Le Monde says police are now searching for a potential second accomplice – officials have said they are hunting for a suspect seen at Zaventem airport who is believed to have fled the scene without detonating his bomb.

This is the first mention of a second attacker in the metro bombing. The Guardian is not yet able to verify this report.

Opening summary

Welcome to ongoing coverage of the aftermath of the terrorist strikes in Brussels that killed 31 people.

European justice and security ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels today to discuss the response to the terror threat.

Here are the latest developments:

  • Two of the Brussels attackers have been identified as brothers Khalid and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, who acted as suicide bombers at Maelbeek metro station and Brussels airport respectively. The two Belgians were already being sought by police due to suspected links to the November terror attacks in Paris.
  • Najim Laachraoui has been tentatively identified as the second airport bomber by French and Belgian media reports, but this has not been confirmed. Reports on Tuesday that he had escaped and was later arrested proved to be wrong.
  • The identity of a third man seen at Zavantem airport has not yet been established. Officials said he is thought to have fled the scene after his own bomb failed to detonate. A manhunt is underway.
  • French newspaper Le Monde has reported that a second man, carrying a large bag, was seen on CCTV in the Brussels metro with Khalid el-Bakraoui. This is the first mention of a second attacker in the metro bombing and the Guardian is not yet able to verify this.
Khalid el-Bakraoui, Najim Laachraou and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui.
Khalid el-Bakraoui, Najim Laachraou and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui. Photograph: Handout
  • Turkey said it had deported Ibrahim el-Bakraoui to the Netherlands in the summer of 2015 and had warned Belgium that he was a suspected foreign fighter.
  • 31 people are confirmed to have died in the two attacks, and 300 wounded. Of these, 150 are still being treated in hospitals, 61 of whom are in intensive care. Four patients remain unidentified.
  • Three people have so far been officially identified among the dead: Adelma Tapia Ruiz, Leopold Hecht and Oliver Delespesse.
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