Blast rocks Belgium crime lab
Criminal element likely involved in powerful explosion, say officials
BruSSelS: An explosion “of criminal origin” at Belgium’s national criminology institute in Brussels caused a fire and major damage but no casualties, officials said.
Belgian media reported that the blast, which occurred early yesterday, was caused by a car which rammed the building.
It comes as Belgium remains on high alert following the devastating Islamic Stateclaimed suicide attacks on the city’s airport and metro in March.
“There was no one at the site” in the northern Brussels suburb of Neder-Over-Heembeek, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said, refusing to comment on the cause except to say the explosion had a “criminal origin” and the prosecutor had set up a “crisis centre”.
“It was probably not accidental,” fire service spokesman Pierre Meys said.
“The explosion was extremely powerful. Windows of the lab were blown out dozens of metres away.”
He said about 30 firefighters were at the scene fighting the blaze.
RTBF television said two suspects rammed a car into the institute grounds and threw an incendiary device at it.
The institute is part of Belgium’s federal justice system. Among its tasks is to carry out scientific analyses linked to criminal cases and to study the functioning of the penal system.
Belgium has been high alert after suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union headquarters on March 22, killing 32 people.
Those attacks were claimed by IS, which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror attacks in Europe in recent months. — AFP