This Thursday, Belgian police stopped and evacuated a bus coming from Lille, in the North, after the alert given by a passenger about the risk of a “terrorist” attack. Three people were arrested following the incident, according to Belgian authorities.
The Flixbus company bus, coming from Lille and bound for Brussels, was stopped by the authorities in Wetteren, near Ghent, in western Belgium. The passenger who raised the alert 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 Belgian Minister of Justice, Paul Van Tigchelt.
“We are not yet sure that the threat was real”
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.