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Note from Brussels suspect found in binned computer

Passengers have their bags checked by armed officers as they arrive to use the Metro at de Brouckere Metro station, Brussels, as the city remains on high alert fol. Picture by Gareth Fuller, Press Association
Passengers have their bags checked by armed officers as they arrive to use the Metro at de Brouckere Metro station, Brussels, as the city remains on high alert fol. Picture by Gareth Fuller, Press Association Passengers have their bags checked by armed officers as they arrive to use the Metro at de Brouckere Metro station, Brussels, as the city remains on high alert fol. Picture by Gareth Fuller, Press Association

ONE of two brothers who carried out suicide bomb attacks in Brussels leaving at least 34 people dead and scores injured, including four Britons, left a note in a bin.

Brahim El Bakraoui who struck at the city’s airport, said in the note, described by a prosecutor as a written testament, that he was “on the run”.

His brother Khalid El Bakraoui targeted a train at a Metro station during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, killing 20 people.

The attack followed a double blast at Zaventem Airport which claimed 14 lives.

Frederic Van Leeuw told a press conference on yesterday afternoon in relation to the Brussels attacks: “A photo showing the three suspects has been issued and one of them has been identified, Mr Brahim El Bakraoui, because of his fingerprints, and he is of Belgian nationality."

One of the suspects has not yet been identified and the third is believed to be on the run.

He said Brahim El Bakraoui indicated in a note found on a computer left in a bin in the area of Schaerbeek in Brussels that he was “on the run” and did not “know what to do”.

He said: “We have found a written testament by Brahim El Bakraoui in which he said: ‘I don’t know what to do. I’m in a hurry. I’m on the run. People are looking for me everywhere. And if I give myself up then I’ll end up in a cell.’”

According to the report, which did not say who its sources were, Khalid El Bakraoui had rented an apartment that was raided last week in an operation that led authorities to top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.

Mr Van Leeuw said two people were arrested on Tuesday night. One person has been released, but the other, arrested in Schaerbeek is being questioned.

He said two of the dead attackers had criminal records, but not related to terrorism.

The man pictured at the airport who is at large has not been identified by authorities but Belgian newspaper DH reported that he might be Najim Laachraoui, whom Belgian authorities have been searching for since last week as a suspected accomplice of Abdeslam, despite earlier reports from local media that he had been arrested.

Laachraoui is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks, a French police official said, adding that Laachraoui’s DNA was found on all of the vests as well as in a Brussels apartment where they were made.

Abdeslam was arrested on Friday in the Brussels neighbourhood where he grew up, a rough place with links to several of the attackers who targeted a Paris stadium, rock concert and cafes on November 13. Those attacks killed 130 people.

The prosecutor confirmed a taxi driver had come to them with information that he “gave a lift to three persons who had big bags”.

It is thought a raid at an address after this uncovered another bomb and an Islamic State (IS) flag.

IS has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks and issued a statement in Arabic and French which threatens other countries in the anti-IS coalition with “dark days”, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.

Images following the third explosion showed passengers climbing from a train into a smoke-filled tunnel near Maelbeek station.

Mr Van Leeuw said the blast took place in the second carriage of the train while it was still at the station.

The prosecutor added that the death toll could rise in the coming days.

As it entered a second day of mourning, Belgium held a minute’s silence in memory of the victims.

The first confirmed fatality was mother-of-two Adelma Tapia Ruiz (37) from Peru.

Meanwhile, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said one of the Brussels attackers was caught in Turkey in June last year and deported to Belgium.

The Turkish authorities said they warned Belgium and the Netherlands he was a “foreign terrorist fighter”, but the Dutch authorities let him free because the Belgian authorities could not link him to terrorism.

Mr Erdogan said that “despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter, Belgium could not establish any links with terrorism”.

Around 270 people were injured in the attacks, and Downing Street has said four, three of whom are in hospital, are British nationals.

Number 10 said it was also concerned about a missing British national.

The family of Briton David Dixon, who is originally from Hartlepool but was living in Brussels and has been missing since the explosions, are said to be “desperately” searching for him.

Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons: “We face a common terrorist threat and I’m sure the whole House will join me in expressing our full solidarity with the people of Belgium following these terrible attacks.”

Transport terminals across the UK and Europe have boosted security in the wake of the atrocities, and Belgium’s main airport is to remain closed at least until Thursday night.