11:45
Belgium is on high alert after a
major anti-terror raid in which two suspected Islamist militants were killed.
The suspects were shot dead in the
eastern town of Verviers after they opened fire on police with automatic
weapons on Thursday evening.
Officials say they had returned from
Syria and planned imminent attacks on police targets. Another suspect was
wounded before being arrested.
Searches were also carried out
overnight in the Brussels area.
'Bomb-making equipment'
Speaking after Thursday's raid in
Verviers, near the German border, Prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt said the terror
threat level had been raised to three - the second highest.
Referring to the raid itself, he
said: "The suspects immediately and for several minutes opened fire with
military weaponry and handguns on the special units of the federal police
before they were neutralised."
After the operation, four
Kalashnikovs, bomb-making equipment and police clothing were found, according
to local media. Security forces remain in the Verviers area.
Police are expected to provide more
details at a briefing on Friday.
"Operations on the ground are
now over. We are now exploiting the information [from the overnight anti-terror
operations]," Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders told French TV
station iTele.
Some Jewish schools in Antwerp and
Brussels were closed on Friday, after they were informed that they could be
potential targets, Belgian newspaper Joods Actueel reported.
Anti-terror raids also took place
late on Thursday in the capital Brussels and surrounding towns, including
Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Anderlecht and Schaerbeek.
Earlier that day, two suspected
Islamists were arrested in the Brussels suburb of Zaventem, Belgian media
reported.
Belgian officials say more than 300
people have left Belgium to fight with Islamic militant groups in Syria and
Iraq.
The country is thought to have the
highest number of foreign fighters per capita in Europe who have taken part in
fighting in Syria.
'Just terrified'
Prosecutors said the suspects in
Verviers were believed to have been plotting to attack a police station and
cause a large number of casualties.
Eyewitnesses reported hearing heavy gunfire for several
minutes and at least three explosions.
Marylou
Fletcher, one of the witnesses, told the BBC: "We were going back from
shopping and saw the police cars. We thought there was an accident then we
heard something blowing up. There were a lot of gunshots.
"My
children cried. They are just terrified."
The
area around the train station remains sealed off.
Belgian
Prime Minister Charles Michel said the security operation "shows the
government's determination to fight those who want to spread terror", his
spokesman said.
The incident comes a week after attacks in neighbouring
France that killed 17 people. Belgian media has reported that some of the
weapons used in those attacks were bought in Brussels.
However,
Mr Van Der Sypt said no weapons link with the killings in France had been
established.
The
suspects in the Belgium raids had been under surveillance for some time - well
before last week's traumatic events in Paris, the BBC's Chris Morris in
Verviers says.
But
there are fears that the suspects captured or killed in this operation could
have been inspired by the killings in France to accelerate their own plans, our
correspondent adds.
The
attacks in and around Paris - on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher
market and police - have heightened security fears in several European
countries.
In
May last year, four people were killed inside the Jewish museum in Brussels. A
Frenchman of Algerian descent is in custody in Belgium over the attack.
