Early reports described a bomb attack, but investigators now say they are not sure there was any explosion.
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According to a report on RTL Belgium news, a vehicle rammed through three fences of the Brussels Institute of Criminology at 2.30 a.m.
State broadcaster RTBF claimed that a auto with two people on board managed to get through the security barriers to the site.
Brussels has been on edge since a terror attack March 22 that killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. Find us on Facebook too!
A picture shows a damaged window of the National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (INCC-NICC) after an explosion overnight on August 29, 2016 in Neder-Over-Heembeek.
Belgium’s police and army have been deployed in large numbers since the suicide bomb attacks in Paris last November that left 130 dead.
“Five people were arrested in the immediate neighbourhood”.
Ine Van Wymersch said that earlier reports of an explosion preceding the fire were probably false.
“Several attackers forced their way into the institute using their auto and were able to attack the building”, said Ine Van Wymersch, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office.
No casualties were reported, and five people were detained in the vicinity and are being questioned, she added.
The institute works with Belgium’s justice authorities to carry out investigations.
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Belgium is on high alert because of the recent terrorist attacks on the city’s airport and metro.
