A suspect named as Faycal C. has been charged with terrorist murder and police are trying to confirm if he is the third Brussels airport suicide bomber who fled the scene, a source close to the probe said Saturday.
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A man identified as Faycal Cheffou has reportedly been charged with terrorist murder after the Brussels bombings on Tuesday which claimed 31 lives.
That operation was linked to the arrest in Paris on Thursday of an Islamist convicted in Belgium past year and suspected of plotting a new attack, Belgian prosecutors said.
In keeping with Belgian law, which requires a hearing before a judge and a warrant to be issued within 24 hours to keep a suspect in detention, the judge in charge of the case issued a formal arrest warrant on Friday.
The other two men in the airport surveillance video have been identified as Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, seen walking in the middle, and Najim Laachraoui, a bombmaker linked by DNA to the Paris terror attacks in November that killed 130 people.
The taxi driver who took the bombers to the airport – who previously said they had wanted to take five bags but he could only fit three in the vehicle – identified Cheffou as the third man, Le Soir newspaper reported.
The BBC’s Anna Holligan in Brussels says buses there are running and most metro stations have reopened but there are still soldiers patrolling the streets and although people are defiant, they are aware that there are possibly still other suspects at large. No arms or explosives were found, prosecutors said.
“The security services are doing their work”, said Timotheee Bunkyezi, a 54-year-old student who believes that for such a large-scale operation, the intelligence the Belgian police had must have been solid. The State Department had earlier confirmed that two Americans died in the Tuesday terrorist attacks in Belgium but did not identify them.
Faycal Cheffou was taken into custody on Thursday.
A massive manhunt began after surveillance footage captured the third bomber wearing a distinctive dark hat and white jacket.
One man said his son, who has a shop in an area that is now closed, saw an armed person emerge from a metro shop and get shot in the leg by police.
On Saturday, organisers of a peace march in Brussels announced its event on Sunday has been postponed, after appeals from officials, who said police are already overstretched, with investigations on the attacks still ongoing.
The Brussels Airport Co. said Saturday it is “currently studying a temporary solution to partially resume passenger flights, taking into account the new security measures” decided by the federal government.
According to Belgian authorities, those killed in the attack have been identified as nationals of the U.S., Belgium, the Netherlands, Peru, Great Britain, China and France. Laachraoui was also apparently stopped by police on the Hungary-Austria border in September traveling with now-arrested Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam. The bomb was later set off in a controlled explosion.
Can Europe stop the next attack?
Also on Saturday, local news reported a security officer at a nuclear plant in Belgium was killed earlier this week and his security pass was stolen, suggesting terrorists were focusing on a nuclear plant for an attack.
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Meanwhile, singer Mariah Carey has canceled her upcoming show in Brussels.
