Hankinson confirmed as at 10 a.m. PT there are no delays or cancellations at Vancouver International Airport following Tuesday morning’s deadly bombings in Brussels that killed at least 34 people.
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An hour later, another blast was reported at Maelbeek Metro station, close to the U.S. Embassy and European Union headquarters.
Two blasts went off in the departure hall of Brussels’ Zaventem Airport at around 8am local time, with at least one of them being a suicide bombing, according to Belgium’s federal prosecutor.
ISIS claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 31 people at the airport and subway.
Amid fears that more attacks could be on the way, Belgian authorities raised the nation’s terror alert to the highest level, diverting planes and trains and ordering people to stay where they were.
Charles Michel, Belgium’s prime minister, called the attacks “blind, violent and coward”. “A lot of people are injured”.
George Dallemagne, a member of Belgium’s parliament, drove his wife to the airport shortly before the explosion occurred.
“Through the attacks in Brussels, the whole of Europe has been hit”, Hollande said.
“We’re at war. Europe has been repeatedly attacked for the last few months by acts of war (…) and we must be determined to fight terrorism”.
Footage from Maalbeek station shows black smoke pouring from the entrance, with people being moved on stretchers and victims seen with facial injuries. But Peter Mertens of the Belgian crisis center said the threat of more attacks “is still real and serious”.
Police patrols have been stepped up at a number of “key locations” around the United Kingdom as a result of this morning’s attacks. An undetonated suicide belt has been found at the airport, Flemish TV channel VTM reported, adding that authorities believe it may have belonged to the third terrorist who managed to flee the scene.
The posting claimed the attack was in response to Belgium’s support of the worldwide coalition arrayed against it. One Twitter post widely circulated by prominent ISIS backers featured the words, “What will be coming is worse”. According to the country’s ministry of health, 11 people were also killed at the airport.
Takeoffs and landings were suspended and public transport was halted to the airport, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from central Brussels.
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“The thinking here is that it is some kind of terrorist attack, although that hasn’t been verified by any of the authorities here at the airport”, Sky reporter Alex Rossi, who was in the duty free area at Zaventem, told Sky News.
