Footage shows suspects in Brussels attack

Story highlights

• Authorities comb through a building where a taxi driver says he picked up the suspects
• Prosecutor: Of three men pushing airport luggage carts in photos, two are probable suicide attackers and one is at large
• Two explosions rock Brussels Airport, another rips through a subway station in the Belgian capital

Brussels, Belgium (CNN)In grainy images from surveillance footage, a man wearing light-colored clothes and a hat pushes a baggage cart through the airport.

It's one key piece of evidence authorities are looking at as they search for suspects after two explosions at the Brussels airport and another at a busy metro station in the Belgian capital Tuesday killed at least 30 people and wounded 230 others.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks, but authorities said it's too soon to say for sure whether the terror group was behind the blasts.

So far, police have released photos of three men they say are suspects tied to the airport attack, standing side-by-side.

Two of the men, wearing black in surveillance images, are believed to be suicide bombers who died in the explosions in the airport's departure lounge.

But investigators believe the one in light-colored clothing planted a bomb at the airport, then left. Authorities called him a wanted man and asked for the public's help tracking him down.

"The third man left a bomb in the airport, but it didn't explode. ... And we are now looking for this guy," Belgium's Interior Minister Jan Jambon said.

A photograph released by investigators shows the three suspects side-by-side.

Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said the two men wearing black in the photograph were likely the suicide attackers.

Video shows the men exiting a taxi and moving through the airport, according to two U.S. officials. The man dressed in white left the airport after accompanying the other two, they said -- a move the officials said appeared to be planned.

Taxi driver tip sparks raid

A break in the investigation may have come from a taxi driver who took the suspects to the airport.

The driver contacted authorities after seeing surveillance footage and gave them the address where he picked the men up, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation.

That information prompted authorities to raid a residence after the attacks, the officials said.

Investigators found a nail bomb, chemical products and an ISIS flag during a house search in the northeast Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek, Belgium's federal prosecutor said in a statement.

Hours later, they were still combing through the building for evidence.

Security was high. At one point, a helicopter hovered overhead, carrying a sniper with a weapon trained on the building.

As masked, armed officers stood guard outside the building, the burst of camera flashes inside could be seen from the street below. Officers left the building carrying bags of evidence they loaded onto vehicles.

Ties to Paris attacks?

A Belgian government representative told CNN that 10 people were killed and 100 wounded at Brussels' international airport. At least 20 people died and 130 were wounded at the Maelbeek metro station, officials said.

The blasts sent wounded people fleeing into the streets, spurred evacuations of nuclear plants and transit hubs and led to raids in some areas as authorities searched for suspects and evidence.

Authorities in Belgium have been trying to crack down on terror threats for months as they raided homes in the area in search of suspects. Tuesday's violence came just days after investigators closed in on Europe's most wanted man, Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was hiding out in a Brussels suburb.

The "working assumption" is that the attackers came from the network behind November's massacres in Paris, which left 130 dead, Belgian security sources said, while cautioning it is very early in the latest investigation. ISIS also claimed responsibility for those attacks.

As doctors treat the wounded and authorities search for suspects, a key question remains unanswered: Could the attacks have anything to do with Abdeslam's arrest?

On Tuesday, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel deflected a question about whether there is any link between the attacks and the Belgium-born French citizen's capture, saying it is too early to tell.

Michel said Tuesday he had "no information" about who was responsible for the attack, adding that authorities will find that out, but now their focus is on caring for the victims.

Two senior U.S. officials told CNN they believe the Belgium attack is tied to the same network as Abdeslam.

Fears realized

One of the two airport explosions happened outside security checkpoints for ticketed passengers and near the airline check-in counters, an airline official briefed on the situation said.

The subway station blast happened about an hour later in the Brussels district of Maelbeek, near the European Quarter, where European Union institutions are based.

"We were fearing terrorist attacks," Michel told reporters Tuesday. "And that has now happened."

Belgium is no stranger to terror. "The Belgians have been sitting on a ticking time bomb," a U.S. counterterrorism official said, given all those who have traveled from the small European nation to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, then possibly come back home.

But for survivors of Tuesday's blasts, the repeated warnings from officials in recent months didn't dull the shock of seeing the carnage.

"You cannot believe it; you cannot believe it," said Jef Versele, who was in the airport's departure hall when bombs exploded there. "It was so insane. Not in my backyard."

The second blast inside the airport blew out windows, created a lot of smoke and caused parts of the ceiling to fall, he added.

"People were on the floor," Versele said, estimating he saw 50 to 60 who were thrown to the ground and didn't seem to be able to walk.

Anthony Barrett saw the wounded carried out on stretchers and luggage carts as he watched from his hotel across from the terminal building.

"I could see people fleeing," he said.

'We remain united'

After the attacks in Brussels, the home of NATO and the capital of the European Union, leaders inside Belgium and beyond vowed not to back down in their fight against terror.

In Belgium, where officials declared three days of national mourning, Michel offered a resolute message to those who supported and cheered the attackers.

"To those who have chosen to be barbarous enemies of freedom, democracy and fundamental values ... we remain united as one," Michel said. "We are determined to defend our freedoms and to protect our liberties."

In its message claiming responsibility, ISIS noted that Belgium is one of the nations "participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State."

A Twitter post widely circulated by prominent ISIS backers Tuesday featured the words, "What will be coming is worse."

World mourns with cartoons, open doors

U.S. ramps up security

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reported from Brussels. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Greg Botelho wrote the story in Atlanta. CNN's Nima Elbagir, Joshua Berlinger, Jason Hanna, Hamdi Alkhshali, Evan Perez, Pamela Brown, Tim Hume, Ryan Browne, Aurore Gayte, Shimon Prokupecz, Sheila Upadhya, Euan McKirdy, Margot Haddad, Mick Krever and journalist Laila Benallal contributed to this report. 

Brussels bombings: massive manhunt across Belgium for suspected terrorist on the run

A massive manhunt is under way in Belgium as police search for a suspected terrorist believed to have escaped the Brussels bombings after the explosives he was carrying did not detonate.

As raids continued across the city on Wednesday, further details emerged about the events leading up to the attacks at Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station which killed at least 31 people and injured up to 230.

Latest developments as Belgian police hunt for suspects in Tuesday’s bombings

The names of those killed, injured, or missing were also emerging, with a 37-year-old Peruvian mother of twins, Adelma Tapia Ruiz, the first victim to be named.

Tapia Ruiz was killed just after 8am local time in one of two blasts at the airport north-east of the city centre, which killed at least 10 others and left at least 92 wounded. A third bomb that went off at the metro station on Rue de la Loi, close to the European Union headquarters, killed 20 and injured 130.
According to local reports a taxi driver has come forward after recognising CCTV images of the three suspects as men he picked up from an apartment block and dropped off at the airport.

The report said this led police to raid an apartment block in Schaerbeek, where they discovered an explosive device filled with nails, as well as an Islamic State flag and chemicals.

The driver remembered the men had too much luggage to fit into his vehicle and were forced to leave some behind, Belgian news outlet HLN reported. He was also not allowed to assist them in unloading luggage upon arrival at the airport.

Zaventem’s mayor Francis Vermeiren had earlier said the airport bomb suspects “came in a taxi with their suitcases, their bombs were in their bags”. He added: “They put their suitcases on trolleys, the first two bombs exploded. The third also put his on a trolley but he must have panicked, it did not explode.”

Police are now searching for the third man, captured on CCTV dressed in a white jacket and hat alongside two other suspects. His two companions were dressed in black and wearing black gloves on their left hands thought to have concealed detonators. They “very likely committed a suicide attack”, the federal prosecutor, Frederic van Leeuw, told a news conference.

Isis has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying through its affiliated news agency Amaq that its fighters carried out “a series of bombings with explosive belts and devices”. The extremists had also opened fire at the airport and suicide belts were detonated in both attacks, it said.

It was still “too early to make a direct connection between the attacks in Paris and today’s attacks”, Van Leeuw said.

Isis later released an updated communique, threatening other nations allied against it that “what is coming is worse and more bitter”.

The bombings came days after Belgian officials warned of possible attacks following the arrest in a Brussels shootout on Friday of Salah Abdeslam, the only known survivor of 10 Islamist attackers who killed 130 people in a string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris in November.

Belgium raised its terror alert to its highest level. The airport will remain closed on Wednesday, and the metro will be running a reduced service, but schools are expected to open as normal following Tuesday’s city lockdown.
“What we feared has happened: there were two attacks this morning,” the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, told a news conference, speaking of a “black day” for Belgium and adding that more might follow.

He later announced three days of national mourning, saying with tears in his eyes that the fight against terror was “a common fight, a fight without borders”, and that Belgium was “determined to defend our freedom”.

Local media quoted witnesses as saying shots were fired and shouts in Arabic heard shortly before the blasts at the airport.

Health workers treating the wounded said one of the bombs contained nails. A US official told AP that one may have been a suitcase bomb.

There are fears for a number of missing people, including a British man, David Dixon who did not arrive at work in Brussels on Tuesday morning and who has not been in touch with his family.
A Brazilian-Belgian man, Sebastian Bellin, suffered severe leg injuries while standing in line at a check-in counter.

Hi father, Jean Bellin told CNN: “My son is doing well considering. He went through his first operation today. Because he was left for about an hour on the floor in the airport in Brussels he lost a lot of blood. So they stabilised him and now he is going to go through another operation.

“I spoke with him twice. He is obviously stunned. The first words out of his mouth were ‘You wouldn’t believe the carnage I saw around’.

Pictures and video posted on social media showed smoke rising from the terminal building through shattered windows, and devastation inside the departure hall, with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor and passengers running along a slipway, dragging their bags behind them.

Police later found and neutralised a third bomb at the airport, a spokeswoman, Florence Muls, said. The state broadcaster, RTBF, reported that at least one and possibly two Kalashnikov assault rifles were found at the scene.

Local media said the explosions occurred in the check-in area, close to the counters of Brussels Airlines, American Airlines and handling agency Swissport, and next to a Starbucks cafe.
Passenger Jef Versele, 40, from Ghent, said he heard two explosions. “Everything was coming down,” he said. “Glassware. It was chaos. There were lots of people on the ground. About 15 windows were just blown out from the entrance hall.”

Zach Mouzoun, who arrived on a flight from Geneva about 10 minutes before the first blast, told BFM TV that the second, louder explosion brought down ceilings and split pipes open, the water mixing on the floor with victims’ blood.

“It was atrocious. The ceilings collapsed,” he said. “There was blood everywhere, injured people, bags everywhere. It was a war scene.”

Jean-Pierre Lebeau, a French passenger who had just arrived from Geneva, said he had seen wounded people and “blood in the elevator”. Marc Noel, 63, was in an airport shop when the first explosion occurred. “People were crying, shouting. It was a horrible experience,” he said.

At 8am, two blasts rocked Brussels’ airport. Little more than an hour later, another bomb hit a metro station. Passengers, staff and emergency service workers described scenes akin to those in a warzone

More than 1,000 people evacuated from the airport were taken by bus to a nearby sports hall. The wounded from both incidents were being treated at Brussels’ St Luc University hospital and several other other city-centre hospitals.

An emergency services spokesman, Pierre Meys, said the blast had been “extremely strong. Everything is destroyed, everything is in pieces. There is damage as far away as an underground car park at the end of the street – the shockwave was felt in the stations on either side.”

The Brussels metro authority, STIB, said a single blast occurred at 9.11am in the second carriage of a train that had stopped at Maelbeek. First aid was initially administered in a nearby pub, as shocked morning travellers streamed out of the station and police set up a security cordon.

Wiping blood from his face, one passenger, Alexandre Brans, 32, told AFP that the metro train was “just leaving Maelbeek station for Schuman when there was a really loud explosion. It was panic everywhere. There were a lot of people in the metro.”

The Belgian capital, home to the headquarters of both the EU and Nato, was in lockdown for most of the day, the metro, tram and bus systems suspended and residents asked to stay off their mobile phones so as not to overload the network. EU staff were told not to come to work.

Members of the public gather at the Place de la Bourse in Brussels to leave messages and tributes. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

The US president, Barack Obama, pledged to “do whatever is necessary” to help Belgian authorities. “We stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people,” Obama said on a visit to Havana, Cuba, adding that the world “must unite” regardless of nationality, race or faith in “fighting against the scourge of terrorism”.

Other European capitals condemned the attacks and offered their support and commiseration. In France, the prime minister, Manuel Valls, said: “We are at war. We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war.”

President François Hollande said terrorists had “struck Brussels, but it was Europe that was targeted, and all the world that is concerned”. The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said the Eiffel tower would be lit in the colours of the Belgian flag “in solidarity with Brussels”.

“These attacks mark another low by the terrorists in the service of hatred and violence,” said EU president Donald Tusk. The British prime minister, David Cameron, said he would chair a Cobra crisis response meeting, adding that he was “shocked and concerned by the events in Brussels”.

The German justice minister, Heiko Maas, denounced “a black day for Europe” and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said the blasts “show once more that terrorism knows no borders”.
Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, who was in business in Jordan, fought back tears when she heard the news. There were minute’s silences in the parliaments in Paris, Prague and Madrid.

The Twitter hashtags #Belgium and #PrayForBelgium were trending across Europe and the US within hours of attacks. Images shared included one of Tintin, the cub reporter created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé, saying, “Let’s be strong”, and a drawing by French cartoonist Plantu depicting a figure dressed in French colours putting an arm around a crying Belgian flag.

Abdeslam, the prime surviving suspect in November’s attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, Stade de France and a string of cafes and restaurants in Paris, was captured in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, where he grew up, on Friday, having apparently managed to hide out for more than four months in the Belgian capital, where French and Belgian police believe the Paris attacks were planned.

The Belgian foreign minister, Didier Reynders, warned over the weekend that Abdeslam “was ready to restart something in Brussels, and it may be the reality because we have found a lot of weapons, heavy weapons … and a new network around him in Brussels”.

The interior minister, Jan Jambon, repeated the warning on Monday, adding that Belgium was now on high alert for a revenge attack. “We know that stopping one cell can … push others into action. We are aware of it in this case,” he told public radio.

Belgian prosecutors this week named one of two men still sought in connection with the Paris attacks as Najim Laachraoui, 24, who reportedly travelled to Syria in 2013 and was previously identified by his alias Soufiane Kayal. Laachraoui was travelling with Abdeslam in September 2015 when their car was stopped at the Hungarian border with Austria. Also in the car was Mohammed Belkaid, who was shot dead by a police sniper in a raid in Brussels on Tuesday in the operation that led to Abdeslam’s capture three days later.

A second suspect has previously been named as Mohamed Abrini, 31, a Belgian national and childhood friend of Abdeslam in Brussels.

Keywords : Belgium, Brussels Airport, Brussels attack, Brussels blast, Brussel, Brussels Airport Attack