What happened in the Brussels bombing, who was the terrorist at Central Station and is he dead? Here’s all you need to know
A TERRORIST was shot dead by soldiers at Brussels Central Station in Belgium after a botched suicide mission.
Here's what we know about the incident and the man who carried out the attack.
What happened at Brussels Central Station?
A terrorist screamed “Allahu akbar” at soldiers and charged at them before being killed in a hail of gunfire.
The incident took place just after 8pm at Brussels Central Station on Tuesday June 20.
Dramatic pictures emerged showed a fireball engulfing the station's concourse.
The man - later identified as a 36-year-old from Morocco - was said to have carried two explosive devices inside a suitcase, one of which did not properly detonate.
Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique reported that he was also wearing a backpack and bomb belt.
According to a source, he was "shot several times" by soldiers guarding the station "after he triggered the device".
No one else was injured in the blast.
"This is considered as a terrorist attack," federal prosecutor's office spokesman Eric Van Der Sypt said.
Who was the Brussels suicide bomber?
Authorities have named the terrorist as O.Z., a 36-year-old Moroccan man.
Belgian media said he was a well-known sex offender, but was not on the radar of officials over links to terror.
It's also been confirmed he had lived in Molenbeek, a notorious district of Brussels that was home to the terrorists behind the Paris attacks.
What did witnesses at Central Station report?
Van Herrewegen, a railway sorting agent, told AFP news agency he had gone down to the station's mezzanine level when he heard someone shouting.
He said: "He cried 'Allahu Akbar', and he blew up a wheeled suitcase.
"I was behind a wall when it exploded.
"I went down and alerted my colleagues to evacuate everyone. He [the terrorist] was still around but after that we didn't see him."
He added: "It wasn't exactly a big explosion but the impact was pretty big. People were running away."
He described the suspect as well-built and tanned with short hair, wearing a white shirt and jeans.
The witness said: "I saw that he had something on him because I could see wires emerging, so it may have been a suicide vest."
Mum-of-three Rozina Spinnoy, 45, from Giffnock, Scotland, told the Daily Record: "Two policemen [came] towards me telling me in French to ‘get out, get out and go up the stairs.’
“Someone said to me it was a bomb and gunfire and I thought ‘oh my god’.
“I’m still in shock. I’m so glad I’m home.”
Hours after the incident the suspect's body remained at the scene over fears he could be carrying explosives as bomb squads searched the area.
"There were people crying, there were people shouting," said Elisa Roux, a spokeswoman for the Belgian rail company SNCB.
What happened in the previous terror attack in Brussels?
Two suicide bombers armed with explosives crammed into suitcases walked into the departures hall of Zaventem Airport on March 22 last year.
At 7:58am the first bomb was detonated in check in row 11 with the second exploding nine seconds later by row 2.
Yells in Arabic were heard before the nail bombs were detonated.
The attack murdered 32 innocent people in cold blood and three terrorists also died in their suicide mission bringing the total death toll to 35.
On top of the killings 340 people were injured with 62 of those left in a critical condition in the aftermath.
A total of five terrorists were responsible for the attacks with three of them - brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui - dying in their suicide missions.
Mohamed Abrini failed to explode his own device and was arrested two weeks later. Osama Krayem also aided Khalid in the attack.
