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Soldiers Shoot 'Terror Attack' Suspect At Brussels Train Station

People stand behind police tape as they are evacuated at the Grand Place near Central Station in Brussels after an explosion on Tuesday.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert
/
AP
People stand behind police tape as they are evacuated at the Grand Place near Central Station in Brussels after an explosion on Tuesday.

Belgian soldiers patrolling Central Station in Brussels Tuesday night shot a suspect after a small explosion that officials called a "terror attack."

Eric Van der Sypt, spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office, said that after the blast "the suspected perpetrator was neutralized by the soldiers present." No bystanders were injured in the explosion and the station was evacuated.

Van der Sypt said it is unknown whether the suspect survived being shot. He also said he does not know the attacker's identity.

The Belgian capital has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed more than 30 people at the city's airport and a subway station in March 2016.

Tuesday's incident is the third attack in two days in a European capital.

On Monday, a motorist rammed a police van on Paris's Champs-Élysées. Earlier in the day, a van driver plowed into a group of Muslims outside a north London mosque.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Amy Held is an editor on the newscast unit. She regularly reports breaking news on air and online.