Cops identify rail bomber

– Belgian security forces have identified a man who set off an explosion at a Brussels train station before he was shot and killed, Interior Minister Jan Jambon said yesterday.

“The terrorist’s identity is known. We have been able to identify him,” Jambon said.

He said the attack could have been much worse because the “big explosion did not happen”.

Witnesses said the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) before setting off the blast, which triggered a small, but intense, fireball in the station’s underground hall.

There were no other casualties apart from the suspect, who was confirmed dead by prosecutors several hours after the attack.

Crying rail passengers fled the station after the explosion, with memories still fresh of last year’s metro and airport suicide attacks in the city.

“This is considered as a terrorist attack,” federal prosecutor’s office spokesperson Eric van der Sypt told a news conference.

The blast in Belgium came a day after a man mowed down Muslims near a mosque in London, and a suspected Islamist rammed a car laden with weapons into a police vehicle in Paris. – AFP