Man arrested in Belgium over alleged terror threat

The man was detained in the Brussels commune of Schaerbeek on Monday

BRUSSELS: Belgian police arrested a man who allegedly made terrorist threats and have seized weapons and computer equipment from him, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The man who was detained in the Brussels commune of Schaerbeek on Monday will appear before a judge to determine whether to keep him in custody, the federal prosecutor's office said.


The man identified as A.B. and born in 1982 is suspected of "possessing weapons and explosives" and allegedly "made threats with a terrorist nature," read a statement.

"Several items were seized, including arms and computer equipment," it added. Bomb disposal experts arrived at the scene to examine a suspect package that turned out not to contain explosives, it added.


Belgium has been on high alert since 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 parts of Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror strikes in Europe over the last year, including attacks in Paris in November 2015 that left 130 people dead.