USA TODAY International Edition
BRUSSELS ON LOCKDOWN; ACTIVE- SHOOTER DRILL IN NYC
New York conducted an extensive active- shooter drill with an eye toward the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Brussels extended its highest alert into Monday as major cities in Europe and the United States hunker down in the face of chilling threats of terror.
“New York City has the strongest, most agile, best- trained first responders in the world,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday after the three- hour training exercise, which included federal and local responders. “They’re ready to protect us.”
In Brussels, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel extended the highest alert level for at least another day, citing an “imminent threat” to the capital. The city was in a virtual lockdown. Commuter rails and schools were ordered closed; most cultural and sports venues were shuttered.
“It makes no sense to try to hide it,” Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said. “There is a real threat.” He said “several suspects” linked to the Nov. 13 Paris attacks were being sought in Bel- gium. The face of the manhunt belonged to Salah Abdeslam. Authorities said Abdeslam, who is Belgian, fled to Brussels from Paris after the attacks there left 130 dead and hundreds wounded.
Belgian prosecutors said they detained 16 people in 22 raids linked to possible attacks in Belgium. But they said fugitive Abdeslam was not among them.
One of Abdeslam’s brothers died in the attacks. On Sunday, another brother made a plea on Belgian TV for Salah Abdeslam to surrender. “I prefer to see my brother in a jail rather than in a graveyard,” Mohamed Abdeslam told Belgian public broadcaster RTBF.
The anxious city had a scare Sunday when a major railway station was evacuated for a suspicious package, but no explosives were found. Later, streets were sealed off in the city’s tourist district due to security concerns.
In Paris, the authority for the city’s public hospitals said Sunday that a number of protective health outfits were missing from a locked room in one of the city’s hospitals.
The missing gear raised con- cerns because Prime Minister Manuel Valls had said earlier that “there may also be a risk of chemical and bacteriological weapons” used by attackers.
Earlier in the day, the sound of an explosion that forced evacuation of the Gare du Nord train station turned out to be a bird electrocuted on the rails, the French national rail operator SNCF said.
Rome and Milan were on alert after the foreign ministry warned that St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City along with some sites in Milan might be potential targets.
In Washington, D. C., Police Chief Cathy Lanier told 60 Minutes that residents should consider taking action — including shooting — if they find themselves in the midst of a terror attack. “Your options are run, hide or fight,” Lanier told the CBS News show. “If you’re in a position to try and ... take the gunman out, it’s the best option for saving lives before police can get there.”