New Year’s fireworks and other public celebrations have been canceled in Belgium’s capital city Brussels due to a suspected terrorist threat, authorities said Wednesday.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the national and local governments made the decision to belay festivities “given information we have received,” the BBC reported.
The cancellation comes days after two men were detained for allegedly planning attacks on “symbolic targets” across Brussels on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Another two were arrested on Wednesday in Turkey over suspected links to the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) and plans to carry out suicide attacks during New Year celebrations in the Turkish capital Ankara.
Belgium has been on high alert since last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris that killed nearly 130 people, with alleged mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud and several other suspects having resided in the small European nation.
Inside the Belgian Town at the Center of the Paris Attacks Investigation
A policewomen searching for evidence in Molenbeek, a heavily immigrant district in Brussels, Belgium. Feb. 2011.Sébastien Van MalleghemA burned car in the streets of Molenbeek, Brussels. Jan. 28, 2010.Sébastien Van MalleghemA police officer searches a women in the middle of the street after a report of a street fight, Brussels. Jan. 28, 2010.Sébastien Van MalleghemA suicide scene in Molenbeek, in the north of Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 1, 2011.
Sébastien Van MalleghemA policeman enters the kitchen of a private home, following a call advising of a family fight in Molenbeek, Brussels, Dec. 2011.Sébastien Van MalleghemAn old woman lays on the floor of her apartment in Molenbeek, Belgium, Feb. 25, 2010. The police was called for an unresponsive old woman, who fell from a chair and couldn't wake up.Sébastien Van MalleghemPolicemen search apartment numbers on the intercom of a building in Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium on Feb 1, 2010.Sébastien Van MalleghemBody search of a suspect by the civilian branch of the police, in a police station in Molenbeek, Brussels. Apr. 7, 2010.Sébastien Van MalleghemA cop is taking fingerprints of a woman in the police station of Brussels West, Molenbeek, Belgium. Feb 25, 2010. She was involved in a fight at a snack bar. Sébastien Van MalleghemCops are preparing documents they will work on during the night, Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium. Feb. 1, 2010.Sébastien Van MalleghemOne of the biggest loads of hashish seized by the civilian branch of the Brussels West Police, Molenbeek, Brussels, May, 2010.Sébastien Van MalleghemPacks of drugs found in the pocket of a drug dealer. Central Police Station of Brussels Ouest, Molenbeek, Brussels, n March 2011.Sébastien Van MalleghemView from the back seat window of a police car driving trough the city of Molenbeek, Brussels Ouest District, Belgium, Dec. 2011.Sébastien Van MalleghemAn arrest is made after police officers searched a place suspected to be a "storage house" for drug dealers. Brussels West, Belgium. Feb. 2011.Sébastien Van MalleghemA police officer approaches a building after receiving an alert that potential suspects were holed up inside the building in Jette, Brussels. Jan. 2010.Sébastien Van Malleghem
