Residents of Brussels tried Saturday to return to some sense of normalcy, five days after terrorist attacks at the airport and a downtown subway station killed 31 people and injured more than 300 others.
But the task was complicated by an intense police manhunt for two — or perhaps three — suspected terrorists who might still wreak havoc on the city that serves as the capital of both Belgium and the capital of Europe.
And nerves were still jangling from the explosions heard around the city this week, from police actions demonstrating the bitter fact that Brussels is now the capital, as well, of Europe’s fight against terrorism.
At least nine people have been arrested in Europe in recent days. Six people were taken into custody Thursday night into Friday morning in Belgium. Three have since been released.
On Saturday, Belgian authorities said they had charged a man they called “Faycal C.” with “terrorist murder” and other counts in connection with Tuesday’s attacks.
The person, whose full name has not been publicly disclosed, was arrested Thursday by Belgian authorities and formally charged Friday, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
In addition to terrorist murder, Faycal C. faces charges of “participation in terrorist activities” and “attempted terrorist murder,” officials said.
No weapons or explosives were found in the person’s home when Belgian authorities carried out a raid, the office said. Further details about Faycal C. were not immediately available.
The officials said Saturday that another man, arrested Friday at a subway station in Schaerbeek, had not been charged. But a judge has allowed him to be held for another 24 hours, pending investigation.
And a person identified only as “Aboubakar A.” has been arrested and charged with participation in activities of a terrorist group, officials said. They did not say when or where he was arrested.
And the investigation continues. Police operations have become commonplace: Several were carried out Friday. One was in the district of Schaerbeek, near where a taxi driver had picked up three alleged conspirators and took them to Brussels Airport before the bombings.
Witnesses told CNN they heard two explosions during the police action Friday. Others reported gunfire near a subway station.
These kinds of police actions demonstrate the urgency authorities feel about capturing those responsible for Tuesday’s killings and preventing another next attack.
More will doubtless come in the future, as authorities try to capture the missing men — and to repair their tattered reputation in the wake of the attacks.
One man said his son, who has a shop in an area that is now closed, saw an armed person emerge from a metro shop and 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 the arrested person was wounded. It was not clear if that person was the same one the shopkeeper saw get shot in the leg.
In Brussels, soldiers line the streets near the central subway station, their hands gripping guns. And people are worried.
“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 neighborhoods swarmed by police, and near the sites of attacks. Brussels Airport won’t recommence passenger flights until Tuesday, at the earliest.
More metro stations have reopened, covering about about half of the city’s nearly 80 stops. But they close at 7 p.m. instead of the usual 1 a.m.
Some trains are running through Maelbeek station, though it remains closed.
The city has “the feeling of war,” one Belgian man said.
Other people welcome the added security.
“It makes me safe,” one woman said.
In the Maelbeek train station, a large, white, large wreath was 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,” one said.
“Let’s show them we are not afraid.,” read other
“I am Muslim,” said still another. “Peace please.”
Can Europe stop the next attack?
Friday’s raid came just days after police, acting on a tip from the taxi driver who took the alleged attackers to the airport, raided an apartment in Schaerbeek and discovered 15 kilos (33 pounds) of the explosive TATP, chemicals, a suitcase containing nails and screws, and other equipment meant to make explosives, along with an ISIS flag, Belgian federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said.
French and Belgian police also are cooperating on what authorities say was a thwarted attack plot in the Paris area.
On Thursday, French police arrested Reda Kriket, 34, near Paris on suspicion of being in an “advance stage” of planning his own attack. Afterward, law enforcement found 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of TATP and a Kalashnikov rifle in a raid in on his apartment in Argenteuil, on Paris’ outskirts, a source briefed on the investigation said.
On Saturday, Belgian authorities said they arrested someone named “Rabah N.” in connection with the investigation into Kriket. Rabah N. is charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist group, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said; information on where and when he was arrested wasn’t immediately available.
Investigators know of additional plots in Europe, in various stages of planning, linked to the same networks that were behind the November’s Paris attacks and the latest ones in Brussels, which 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 has taken over swaths of Syria and Iraq while also staging attacks elsewhere around the world.
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.
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.”
