A bus coming from Lille to Brussels was stopped and evacuated after an alert given by a passenger about a potential risk of a “terrorist” attack. Three people were arrested.
Belgian police stopped and evacuated a bus coming from Lille on Thursday after a passenger alerted them to a potential risk of a “terrorist” attack and three people were arrested following the incident, according to the authorities. The Flixbus company bus, coming from Lille and bound for Brussels, was stopped by the authorities in Wetteren, near Ghent (west of Belgium), after the “alert” given by a passenger, told AFP a spokesperson for the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office.
“We are not yet sure that the threat was real”
This person claimed to have heard a conversation between other passengers suggesting a risk of a “terrorist” attack, which led the police to quickly immobilize the vehicle to evacuate and inspect it, said a spokesperson for the minister. Belgian Justice, Paul Van Tigchelt. According to the prosecution, three people were arrested by the police for questioning, while checks on the bus continued at midday on Thursday.
“We are not yet sure that the threat was real,” added the spokesperson for the prosecution, who confirms that the incident is not yet formally considered “terrorist” and that the federal prosecution has not been grasped. The Belgian anti-terrorist agency (Ocam) told AFP that it “has no reason” to raise its alert level for the moment, given the “preventive” intervention of the police and the absence “concrete information” at this stage.