An order to close the Brussels metro ahead of the deadly March terror attacks on the network failed to reach relevant authorities, in part because an email from Belgian federal police was sent to the wrong address, a parliamentary commission heard Thursday.
The commission, established to investigate the March 22 bombings and whether they could have been prevented, heard that the senior police official in charge of Brussels’ metro networks first learned more than an hour before the deadly bombing at Maelbeek metro station that the explosions at the city’s airport were a terror attack.
At 8:03 a.m. local time — five minutes after the twin blasts at Brussels’ Zavantem airport that killed 12 — Jo Decuyper, chief of railway police for the Brussels region, was informed by military sources at the airport that the blasts were suicide bombings, the commission heard.
A third attacker struck the Maelbeek metro station in central Brussels at 9:11 a.m., killing 20.
Order to close sent at 8.50 a.m.
The commission heard that a federal alert was issued by Belgium’s Federal Crisis Center at 8:50 a.m., including an order to close the metro and the main railway stations in Brussels.
Seventeen minutes later, at 9:07 a.m., federal police sent Decuyper an email ordering the closure of the Brussels metro network until noon, the commission heard.
But, Decuyper told the commission, it was sent to his personal email address, and he did not see the message until after the attacks.
“At least 30 minutes” were needed to evacuate the metro network, he told the commission.
It was only after the explosion at 9:11 a.m. that the station was closed and the network evacuated.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Maelbeek station reopened on April 25.