Explosions and gunfire exacerbated the uneasy mood in Belgium’s capital as it becomes a focal point in Europe’s fight against terrorism following bloody attacks in the city this week.
Residents of Brussels anxiously moved on with their lives as more police raids followed the vicious attacks that left more than 30 people dead Tuesday.
Police operations seem commonplace now, with several taking place Friday. One was in the district of Schaerbeek, near where a taxi driver picked up three conspirators and took them to Brussels Airport before the bombings.
Witnesses told CNN that during the police activity Friday they heard two explosions, while others reported gunfire near a subway station.
One man said his son, who has a shop inside a now closed-off area, saw an armed individual who emerged from a metro shop get shot in the leg by police.
The operation ended with the arrest of one person linked to Tuesday’s attacks, Schaerbeek Mayor Bernard Clerfayt told public broadcaster RTBF.
The mayor said that arrested person was wounded. It was not clear if that individual was the same one the shopkeeper saw shot in the leg.
It’s hard to escape the tension in Brussels, where soldiers line the streets near the central subway station, their hands gripping guns.
“We all know that we are not safe anywhere,” one woman said. “It can happen anywhere and at any moment.”
The effects are felt in many ways, including in neighborhoods swarmed by police and near the attack sites. Brussels Airport, for instance, won’t have passenger flights until Sunday at the earliest.
More metro stations are open — about half of the nearly 80 stops — but they still close at 7 p.m. instead of the usual 1 a.m. Some trains are running through the Maelbeek station, though it is closed. Workers overnight Thursday installed screens and plastic to cover up the bomb damage from the view of passing trains.
A Belgian man said the whole atmosphere in the city has “the feeling of war.” That may be true, but others welcome the added security.
“It makes me safe,” one woman said. “A lot safer.”
At the Maelbeek train station a white, large wreath had been left by the Pompes Funebres Islamiques (Islamic Funeral company). The man who left the flowers said they were leaving others at other sites in Brussels. And even though he declined an interview, he told CNN, “the terrorists were not real Muslims.”
Children also left notes among the flowers at Maelbeek with messages:
“Let’s stay united against this fear.”
“Let’s show them we are not afraid.”
“I am Muslim. Peace please.”
Can Europe stop the next attack?
Belgian authorities conducted searches in Schaerbeek for several hours Friday, sealing off streets for several blocks. At one point, masked teams in hazmat gear could be seen exiting a building and heading toward a police van.
Friday’s raid came just days after police — acting on the taxi driver’s tip — raided an apartment in the district and uncovered 15 kilograms of the explosive TATP, chemicals, a suitcase with nails and screws, an ISIS flag and other equipment meant to make explosives, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said.
These kinds of police actions suggest authorities’ urgency to catch those responsible for Tuesday’s massacres — and to prevent the next attack.
At least nine people have been arrested in recent days in Europe. Six people were taken into custody Thursday night into Friday morning in Belgium. Of those, three have since been released.
Meanwhile a man in France suspected of being in an “advance stage” of planning his own attack was also detained. Afterward, law enforcement found 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of TATP and a Kalashnikov rifle in a raid in Argenteuil on Paris’ outskirts, a source briefed on the investigation said.
Investigators know of additional plots in Europe, in various stages of planning, linked to the same networks behind November’s Paris attacks and the latest ones in Brussels that left 31 people dead and 300 more wounded, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Those terrorists are tied to ISIS, the Islamist extremist group that’s taken over swaths of Syria and Iraq while also lashing out elsewhere around the world.
There’s also a growing feeling that those opposing ISIS can do more. Some of this relates to continuing military efforts in the Middle East. Some has to do with better intelligence and cooperation among allies.
Belgium, especially, has come under fire. Interior Minister Jan Jambon offered to resign after acknowledging missed opportunities to stop one of the suicide bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui. And Prime Minister Charles Michel said he talked with Kerry about how “to do better (and) work together to be more efficient.”
Michel said, “We need to accept that we need to improve the fight against terrorism in Europe and in Belgium.”
The terrorist cell behind the Paris and Brussels attacks is being wiped out but France is still being threatened, French President Francois Hollande said to journalists ahead of a meeting with former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
“The Paris attacks last year, Brussels, without forgetting what happened in Copenhagen, they all trace back to the troubles in Middle East, especially the war in Syria and Iraq,” he said.
Hollande said that despite arrests, the cell and other networks remain dangerous.
