Brussels police chief sent home ‘drunk’ on day of terror attacks

A BRUSSELS police chief was ordered home on the day of the terror attacks after turning up at a crisis meeting ‘drunk’, it has emerged.

After two bombs were detonated at the airport and one on the metro system last Tuesday – killing 32 people – senior officers in the Ixelles district of the city were summoned to review emergency plans with the mayor.

However, one of the police commissioners arrived late and then struggled to answer questions, according to Belgian media reports. His suspicious colleagues asked him to take a breathalyser test and found a reading of 0.8 grams of alcohol per litre of blood, which is above the 0.5g legal limit for driving in Belgium. The limit in the UK is 0.8g.

The commissioner’s gun was immediately confiscated and he was driven home. He now faces an internal investigation and could be sacked.

An official report last September warned that there was an alcohol problem among police officers in the Ixelles district, which includes many of Brussels’ popular eating and drinking spots as well as European Parliament offices. The report claimed senior officers were aware but ‘obscure the problem so as not to make waves’.

Brussels police have been criticised for their botched handling of the attacks, including their failure to identify the ‘man in the hat’ seen with the airport bombers on CCTV.

It was revealed last night that a laptop used by one of the bombers contained images of the Belgian Prime Minister’s home and office in central Brussels. An official said ‘it is alarming that they were apparently scouting the terrain’ around Royal Park.