@RumskyOfficial/Twitter
A series of Tuesday morning explosions in Brussels, Belgium, has left more than two dozen dead and many more injured. According to the Associated Press, two explosions ripped through the Brussels airport first, followed by an explosion at a subway station near the E.U. headquarters in Brussels. At least one of the blasts is thought to have been caused by a suicide bomber.
Belgian authorities are calling all three explosions "terrorist attacks." So far, officials have announced 55 injured and 15 dead in the subway attack and at least one dead in the airport attacks. Update: as of around 10:30 a.m. eastern standard time, the death toll was reported at 31, with at least 187 others wounded.
The attacks come just a few days after Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels for orchestrating the terrorist attacks in Paris last year.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said in a speech: "What we feared has happened, we were hit by blind attacks. … We know there are many dead, many injured … This is a dark moment for our nation. We need calm and solidarity."
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared: "We are at war. We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war."
"This war will be long," added French President Francois Hollande, who said that while the "terrorists struck Brussels… it was Europe that was targeted."
All flights in and out of Brussels have been canceled, all subway stations have been closed, and authorities are telling everyone to remain where they are.
Update: The New York City Police Department (NYPD) released a statement Tuesday morning saying it is "closely monitoring the situation in Belgium and is in close contact " with the FBI and international law-enforcement agencies. For now, though, the NYPD—which "has deployed additional counterterrorism resources across the city"—is using the Brussels attacks to plead for more federal funding. "These attacks come at a time when the federal government has proposed cutting terrorism funding to New York City by roughly 90 million dollars," the NYPD statement continued. "Any cut in terrorism funding to New York—to what is widely recognized as the nation's top terror target—would be irresponsible."
Below is AP footage from the Brussels Airport and metro station attacks:
Commentaires