Radiation student held over bomb alert in Brussels

A radiation student wearing a coat with wires hanging out triggered a five-hour bomb alert in central Brussels yesterday before police managed to detain him for questioning, police said.
Brussels is on high alert for Belgian national day celebrations taking place today, and remains tense following Islamic State (IS)-claimed suicide bomb attacks at the airport and in the metro on March 22 that left 32 people dead.
Police backed by bomb disposal teams cordoned off part of central Brussels where they surrounded the suspect individual, who aroused suspicion because he had on a long winter jacket on a hot day.
“He was studying waves and radiation. He has just been detained and police will begin questioning him now,” Brussels police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere told AFP.
Police said that the “belongings” he was carrying were harmless.
“When the bomb disposal robot moved towards the person under surveillance, he made some very worrying statements that led us to fear that he had explosives on him,” Brussels police spokesman Christian De Coninck told RTL-TVI television.
“He was a student who was going to do his studies in radiation.
“So all the belongings he had on him, which were very suspect, were in fact harmless.”
Photographs in local media showed the man on his knees at gunpoint.
Footage showed troops, police and firefighters in and around the cordoned-off area at Place de la Monnaie, with the streets largely deserted in what is normally a very busy shopping district near the Brussels opera house.
The latest apparent false alarm comes a month after a man with psychiatric problems who was carrying a fake suicide belt full of salt and biscuits triggered a major anti-terror operation at a Brussels shopping mall.
Last week’s deadly Nice lorry attack set off a fresh wave of unease in Belgium and the latest incident, even if it proves to be a false alarm, will add to nerves as the country prepares to celebrate its national day today.
Belgium is the main source per head of population of Islamic militant recruits going from the European Union to fight with IS in Syria, causing deep concern that they will return home battle-hardened and even more radicalised.