As Europe remains on high alert, Belgium has taken extraordinary lengths to keep its citizens in its capital, Brussels, safe. Police and security forces have asked people to stay indoors and stay away from crowds in the wake of intelligence which suggests more terrorist attacks are threatened.
Security services have issued a warning that the city is being locked down because it has intelligence that a Paris style attack may be planned for Brussels. Police have said that 'missing' Jihadi terrorists have threatened to carry out a 'very dangerous act', and it is believed Brussels is their target.
Soldiers and armoured vehicles are now patrolling the streets of the Belgian capital.
Terrorists wanted in connection with the Friday 13th Paris attacks are still at liberty, promptingthe threat of further violence to be recorded at level four : a serious and immediate threat. The city's metro remains closed, professional football matches have been cancelled, shopping mallsstay shuttered as Brussels becomes a city of eerie silence. Schools will not reopen at the end of the weekend as the city maintains a stance of heightened alertness.
News filtering out from the authorities have suggested that security forces had targeted the capture of 26 year-old Frenchman Salah Abdesalam, sought for being one of the main protagonists of the Paris attack.
But, informants have suggested that theBelgian police and security agenciesare actually seeking a number of potentially dangerous terrorists hell bent on spreading fear across Europe.
One week after the Paris atrocities it was announced that Brussels was now the centre of a major terrorist threat.
“Following a new assessment” a government spokesperson said. “The terror alert level has been raised to level four, very serious for the Brussels region. Analysis shows a serious and imminent threat that requires taking specific security measures as well as specific recommendations for the public ”
It is also being reported that Abdesalam was understood to be travelling around Brussels with explosives under his coat.
It has proved a horrifying and terrifying period across the European Union, with the cancellation of last week's Germany versus Netherlands football match due to be played in Stuttgart. On the same night, however,English and French football fans put aside their differences and sang the French national anthem together before the start of the England versus France friendly at Wembley on Wednesday evening.
Some described the experience as very 'emotional' and 'spiritual', and it revealed a growing 'togetherness' between the nations of Europe to stand firm against terror. Butsome fear, as we move toward one of the most important Christian festivals at Christmas,this may only be the beginning.
The Friday the 13th horror that overtook the peace of an end of the working week evening in Paris has returned to stalk the streets of the Belgian capital, placing people across the city and beyond on high alert once again.
