Brussels attacks: Latest updates
Summary
- Belgium is observing three days of mourning and a minute's silence was held at midday
- Two attackers named by prosecutors as brothers Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui
- Police still hunting another man seen in airport CCTV images
- Airport blasts kill at least 11 while 20 die in explosion at Maelbeek metro station
- So-called Islamic State has said it was behind the attacks
Live Reporting
By Tom Spender and Emma Ailes
People are continuing to gather in the Place de la Bourse and lay tributes to victims
London landmarks to be lit up in tribute to Brussels victims
London will pay tribute to victims using major landmarks this evening.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said Londoners would show "solidarity with the people of Brussels"
'It sounded like they fell into a ditch' - father of siblings missing after airport blasts
The BBC's Anna Holligan has spoken to the parents of siblings who are still missing after the attacks.
Their father said he was on the phone to them when the explosion happened.
"It sounded like they fell into a ditch," he said.
'I did what I had to do' - driver of bombed train
Belgian state broadcaster RTBF says it has spoken to the driver of the bombed metro train at Maelbeek station.
Christian Delhasse said at first he thought there had been a technical problem, but he soon he realised it was much more serious. He stopped the train immediately, and began to help victims.
He told the broadcaster: "I did what I had to do. I had nothing, no injuries. I immediately complied with the procedures, it is all I can say."
Seeing the bodies of victims on the ground had left him shocked, he said.
The attack in the subway station left 20 dead and hundreds injured.
'Mistake to speak of war' - French think tank director
Contradicting the French prime minister, Pascal Boniface, director of French think tank the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, says speaking of a war with the jihadists is a "fundamental mistake".
Mr Boniface, interviewed in Belgian newspaper L'Echo, says Europe is dealing with criminals and must be stoical as it faces the risk of further attacks.
"Calling it a war is giving the attackers the status they desire," he told the newspaper.
Location for victims' relatives at military hospital
The hospital is on Bruynstraat / Rue Bruyn in northern Brussels.
Brussels film festival to go ahead
Brussels' Fantastic Film Festival is to go ahead next week despite Tuesday's terror attacks.
Read More'We need unity - we are at war' - French PM Manuel Valls
Speaking at a joint news conference in Brussels with the European Commissioner Jean Claude Juncker, Mr Valls said:
"I think unity is all the more essential when we are under attack, this brings us together as Europeans, we have reaffirmed our attachment to the European project and we want to make sure that Europe is stronger in future than it is today."
He added:
"Against us we have a terrorist organisation with its strike forces, its strongholds, its resources, its affiliates and cells hiding in our society. We are at war. A war has been declared against us. Our determination must be total."
King of Belgium pays tribute to victims, rescue and security services at Brussels airport
The Belgian Royal Palace tweets...
Brussels commuter: I walked 5km to work
Commuters in Brussels faced delays this morning as parts of the city's Metro network were closed following yesterday's deadly bomb attacks. BBC video Journalist Howard Johnson spent the morning talking to people in Brussels to gauge their mood as they made their way into work.
Flowers and tributes laid at Brussels airport
BBC Europe correspondent tweets...
Brussels airport bomber's note: 'I don't know what to do, being searched for everywhere'
One of the suicide bombers who launched a deadly attack at Brussels airport left a note in which he said: "I don't know what to do".
Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said Belgian national Brahim El Bakraoui was identified as having carried out the suicide attack at the airport on Tuesday morning by his fingerprints.
He said a note was found on a computer in a bin during a raid in Schaerbeek in which El Bakraoui wrote:
French media have reported this last comment is a reference to suspected Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested last week.
US Vice-President Joe Biden signs book of condolence
He was at the Belgian embassy in Washington DC
BBC reporter Gavin Lee live on Facebook from 14:30 GMT
US, Islamic State group, Hezbollah and Iran all blamed in Arab press
BBC Monitoring
Blame is being hurled around in the Middle East press, where concern is laced with cynicism over the attacks in Belgium. US policies, Islamic State (IS), Hezbollah and Iran's involvement in Syria all come in for criticism.
There are "black days" ahead with "Daesh [IS] waging a war on the world", says a commentator in Lebanese pan-Arab leftist daily Al-Safir.
Saudi private daily Al-Riyadh wants the world to stand up to Iran, which it accuses of cooperating with Al-Qaeda and Lebanon's Hezbollah in Syria, saying that Tehran is fuelling sectarianism and terrorism.
Syria's pro-government daily Al-Thawrah blames the West for "allowing the Israelis to provide Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey with expertise to strengthen Al-Qaeda, Daesh and Al-Nusra Front".
Egypt's state-flagship Al-Ahram daily also blames the West, which it accuses of failing to support anti-terror efforts in Egypt and the region.
The Emirati private daily Al-Ittihad appeals to Europeans not to take tough reactionary measures against Arab and Muslim communities. "This is what the terrorists want", it says.
A commentator in Jordan's pro-government daily, Al-Dustour, warns that until the US decides to take a firm stance, Europe "will continue to pay the price in the form of a massive refugee crisis and transnational terrorism".
A commentator writing in Israel's Yisrael Hayom says Europe is "sunk in agreements" that limit measures like surveillance, "entering Muslim neighbourhoods", detention and interrogation. The writer says Europe should "set off on a defensive war" otherwise, it will find itself "defeated in the evil war its enemies are initiating".
Brussels attacks: Victims and survivors
The names of victims of the terror attacks in Brussels are slowly emerging, among them a Peruvian woman who was at the airport with her husband and young children.
Read MoreFrom Paris to Brussels: How are the attacks linked?
A clear connection is emerging between the attacks last November in Paris and the bombings in Brussels on 22 March.
Soon after the Paris attacks, it became clear several bombers had come from Belgium and some of the bombs had been made in a flat in Brussels.
Both attacks have been claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS), and key individuals are now being linked to the planning and execution of both.
Read our analysis of the links here.
Brussels attack survivor: I was waiting for a third blast
A British woman photographed sheltering with her family in the aftermath of the Brussels airport attack has been describing her ordeal.
Pauline Graystone, who has lived in Belgium for 20 years, was checking in at Zaventem airport when the bombs went off.
The photo of her cowering amid the chaos of the attack has been used by media worldwide.
(Image credit: Ralph Usbeck/AP)
Another body found at Brussels airport
Local media are reporting that another body has been found at Zaventem Airport.
L'Echo reported that a wall collapsed during the police investigation at the airport.
25 victims 'in critical condition in hospital'
Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block has been visiting the injured in hospital, and told reporters:
Cancelled football match to be played in Portugal
Belgium's friendly against Portugal next week has been switched from Brussels to Leiria in Portugal.
The match was called off for security reasons before Portugal's football association offered an alternate venue.
The Belgium team will train at the King Baudouin Stadium - where the match was originally to be staged - on Wednesday.
The game will be played next Tuesday (19:45 GMT), as initially scheduled.
Belgian team captain Vincent Kompany yesterday reacted to the attacks, asking people to "reject hate and its preachers".
In Russia, 'Western complacency' blamed for attacks
BBC Monitoring
Russian newspaper headlines say the Brussels attacks are an "echo" of those in Paris last year, with most commentators saying that they are a "natural result" of European migration policy as well as the "complacency" of the security services after one of the organisers of the Paris attacks was arrested.
"Europeans have failed to realise what millions of migrants mean… Now they have paid the price for being reckless," Yakov Kedmi says in the pro-government Izvestiya website.
Yevgeny Shestakov in the state-owned dailyRossiyskaya Gazeta says that the Paris and Brussels attacks "have confirmed terrorists' intention to intimidate Europe [and] compel its people to gang up against migrants who have already gone there".
"We are dealing with a hydra - one head is off, another grows in its stead," commentator Vladislav Belov writes in the centrist daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Terror expert Alexei Filatov meanwhile tells popular daily Moskovskiy Komsomolets that security lapses are to blame for the attack, saying that security measures have remained the same in Europe despite the situation changing "radically".
'We found bomber's written testament'
Belgian prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw says police have found a "bomber's written testament'
Death toll 'expected to increase in the coming days'
BBC assistant editor tweets:
IS in Europe: The race to the death
Getting captured fighters of the group known as Islamic State (IS) to talk is one of the crucial ways in which Western intelligence services have built up the picture of its European network. That is why it is hoped the capture of Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected leading members of the cell behind the Paris attacks, will provide crucial intelligence on the current state of IS's network and its future plans.
Read BBC report: IS in Europe: The race to the death
French PM pays tribute to Brussels victims
BBC Monitoring
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has paid tribute to the victims of the bomb attack in Brussels' Maelbeek metro station, Belgian public broadcaster RTBF reports. Mr Valls attended Wednesday morning's ceremony together with his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel.
Key points from Belgian prosecutor's press conference
Police operation continues in Anderlecht
DNA confirmation of Brahim el-Bakraoui's role in airport explosion
Mr Van Leeuw told reporters Brahim el-Bakraoui's role in the airport explosion was confirmed through DNA evidence, but the second bomber at the airport has not been identified.
Role of brothers confirmed
Mr Van Leeuw says 31 people are confirmed dead in the attacks and 261 wounded. He confirms that Khalid el-Bakraoui was the suicide bomber at the Maelbeek metro station, where about 20 people died and his brother Brahim was the suicide bomber at Zaventem airport.
BreakingBomb suspect 'still on the run'
The third Brussels suspect is still on the run after his suitcase bomb - containing the biggest charge at the airport - failed to explode, Belgian prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw says.
Terrorists 'will get through in UK'
Terrorists "will get through" the UK's defences to carry out an attack similar to that in Brussels, former home secretary Lord Reid has told the BBC.
He said: "Politicians ought to be honest with the British people and tell them, 'This will happen.'"
Applause after Brussels minute's silence
Football friendly cancelled
The Belgian Football Association cancels next week's friendly match against Portugal in the wake of the attacks.
The match was due to have taken place on 29 March in Brussels.
"For security reasons and precaution, the City of Brussels has asked the Belgian FA to cancel the match," it says.
Brussels airport remains closed
Brussels airport will remain closed on Thursday, its chief executive has said.
"There will be no passenger flights into and out of Brussels airport tomorrow (24 March)," Arnaud Feist said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Security high amid Belgian manhunt
'Steadily growing' threat
"The attacks in Brussels epitomise a steadily growing terrorist threat to Europe increasingly shaped by militants linked to so-called Islamic State (IS)," Petter Nesser, author of Islamist Terrorism in Europe: A History tells the BBC.
"The terrorists belong to the new generation of jihadis in Europe, mobilised by the Syria war... the Belgian branch was particularly effective in sending foreign fighters to Syria."
He adds: "Many of the European terrorists now flagged as IS were part of al-Qaeda affiliated networks a short while ago. Al-Qaeda has tried to launch similar operations as those in France and Belgium, without success"
He says more attacks are likely. "With up to 6,000 European fighters in the Middle East, increased terrorist funding, more sophisticated propaganda and recruitment, and communications encryption tools, European security services face enormous capacity challenges."
Queen 'deeply shocked and saddened'
British Monarchy tweets...
Prime suspect 'not arrested'
A suspect arrested in Brussels this morning was not Najim Laachraoui, thought to be one of three men in a CCTV image taken before the Zaventem airport attack, some Belgian media are now saying
The newspaper, DH, which first reported the story, says the man detained earlier on Wednesday in the Anderlecht district had been misidentified.
Police and prosecutors have not commented on the reports and are due to hold a news conference within the next hour.
Brussels mayor joins minute of silence
Brussels: Holding hands in solidarity
Minute's silence across Belgium
British PM chairs emergency meeting
British Prime Minister David Cameron has chaired a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on the Brussels attacks.
"We are concerned about one missing British national and we are in close contact with the Belgian authorities," a statement said.
"We are aware of four British nationals who were injured in the attacks - three are being treated in hospital, one has already been discharged. Our embassy staff are working to assist all British nationals affected."
Belgian and French prime ministers to meet
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel will meet his French counterpart Manuel Valls at 1400 GMT, according to a Le Soir journalist.
Chalk tributes on Belgium's pavements
Grieving brother of Peruvian victim says she planned to come home
BreakingNajim Laachraoui arrest 'confirmed'
Najim Laachraoui, the man suspected of being the third attacker at Zaventem airport, has been arrested in the Brussels district of Anderlecht, Belgian media is reporting, quoting judicial sources.
Euro 2016 impact?
A member of Uefa's executive committee has raised the possibility of Euro 2016 matches being played behind closed doors following the attacks in Brussels, BBC Sport is reporting.
Former Italy FA chief Giancarlo Abete says the tournament in France in June and July is an event we "can't delay or postpone", and Uefa cannot exclude playing behind closed doors as the organisation cannot exclude terrorism".
Royal visit to Brussels victims
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium are visiting victims of the attacks, in Erasme hospital in Brussels. They were greeted as they arrived by Prime Minister Charles Michel and health minister Maggie De Block.
Suspect 'held'
Brussels attacks suspect Suspect Najim Laachraoui has been arrested in Anderlecht, Belgium's DH newspaper is reporting. He was named as one of the three men in CCTV footage released by police after Tuesday's explosions but was already being sought over his alleged links to November's Paris attacks.
Monuments in Europe light up in tribute to bomb victims
Merkel denounces 'inhumane' attackers
"The murderers of Brussels are terrorists who have no regard for the precepts of humanity," German Chancellor Angela Merkel says.
"The perpetrators are enemies of all the values for which Europe stands today, and which we as members of the European Union believe in - and, particularly on this day, with great pride - the values of freedom, democracy, and peaceful co-existence as self-confident citizens."
"Our strength is in our unity, and that is how our free societies will prove themselves stronger than terrorism," she said.
German police, meanwhile, have tightened security on the borders with Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as well as at airports and railway stations.
'Stand firm'
The front pages of Belgium's newspapers were placed on display on a billboard in Brussels on Wednesday morning.
"Stand firm", says Le Soir. "The day everyone feared," reads the headline in De Standaard.
German newspaper headlines
BBC Monitoring
German press headlines lament the "attack on the heart of Europe" while comments combine calls for stricter security measures with concerns about sacrificing basic freedoms.
A commentary in conservative Die Welt criticises Belgium for not raising its alert level until after the attacks and calls for extra funding for a "calm, uncompromising fight against terror". But centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in turn criticises those who think the security services could have predicted the attacks, saying that they have an "unenviable task". "It is a dark day for Europe", it concludes.
The liberal Munich paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung urges readers to remember that most victims of terrorism worldwide are Muslims.
'Empty feeling' on Belgium's trains
Cedric Petit, journalist at Belgium's Le Soir newspaper, tweets...
The day after: Few on board the train for a Wednesday. Strange, empty feeling
'Threat still there'
BBC Radio 4 Today tweets...
Today Programme
BBC Radio 4
Right-wing politicians 'score points'
Right wing parties across Europe have blamed Tuesday's attacks on EU policies, EUobserver reports. It says Belgian, British, Dutch, French and Italian Eurosceptics are all trying to score points from the attack.
The UK Independence Party - campaigning for Britain to leave the EU in a referendum in June - published a press release just one hour after the fatal bomb blast in Maelbeek metro station in which defense spokesman Mike Hookem blamed the attacks on the EU's freedom of movement laws and on Germany’s decision to welcome refugees.
Likewise, the Netherlands anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders - whose Freedom Party leads in national polls - was reported to have called for the West to be "de-Islamisced", while French National Front leader Marine Le Pen is reported to have complained that Islamic fundamentalism "is not being treated like the threat it really is".
Adele's tribute
Network 'Strikes again'
BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris tweets...
Security perimeter around Maalbeek metro station
A security perimeter remains in force around the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels where about 20 people died in Tuesday's explosion.
French PM: Europe must tighten border controls
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says it is now imperative to tighten controls on the European Union's borders after the bombings in Brussels.
"There is an urgent need to strengthen the external borders of the European Union," Mr Valls told French radio, adding that heightened vigilance was required to stop people crossing into Europe with false passports, as the group know as Islamic State has "stolen a large number of passports in Syria".