Belgian police have received an alert that a group of Islamic State fighters recently left Syria en route for Europe planning attacks in Belgium and France, according to a Belgian security source.
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French authorities also remain cautious about the information because they receive such notes routinely, an official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity to be able to discuss sensitive security information.
Belgium’s security threat analysis centre said it would not be changing its advice.
The alert comes at a time of high concern in the West about terrorism following recent attacks in Orlando, Florida and Paris.
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The Belgian crisis centre – who are in charge of coordinating security responses, said that an alert had been issued across the country to all police forces, but there are no immediate plans to raise the security level to the maximum.
“We are still at level three, which refers to a threat that is serious, and we have been at this level since November”, he said. Belgian media reports that security services have been alerted to the threat of “imminent” extremist attacks in Belgium and France. It mentions a Brussels shopping center, an American fast food restaurant and “a police target, such as a police station”.
The fighters are said to have travelled by boat without any identifying documents or passports.
Belgium’s OCAM national crisis centre in a statement did not deny the report, but said the information needed to be looked at further.
On Monday, an attacker claiming loyalty to the Islamic State killed a police captain and his partner, who worked at a police department outside Paris.
It is not the first report that fighters might have been dispatched to Europe since the suicide attacks on the Brussels airport and subway on 22 March.
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‘I said we were at war, that this war will take a generation, that it will be long, ‘ Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on France Inter radio.
