Northern Ireland

Brussels: MEPs shelter inside EU parliament as Irish visitors en route to Easter Rising event forced to turn back

People walk away from Brussels airport after explosions. Picture by Geert Vanden Wijngaert
People walk away from Brussels airport after explosions. Picture by Geert Vanden Wijngaert People walk away from Brussels airport after explosions. Picture by Geert Vanden Wijngaert

At least 21 have died following explosions at Brussels airport and a metro station, according to local media.

Two of Northern Ireland's three MEPs are in the European parliament which is "in lockdown" following the attacks, while Sinn Féin's Martina Anderson was heading back to Belfast with dozens of activists.

The Sinn Féin group were en route to Brussels for a centenary celebration of the Easter Rising today in the European Parliament and had got as far as the Eurostar when news of the attacks filtered through.

Ms Anderson told her Twitter followers:

Sinn Féin Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy, was in the European parliament when the blasts happened and said a second party delegation was flying to the city for the Easter Rising event at the time.

Their plane was diverted to Amsterdam's Schipol airport in the neighbouring Netherlands.

"There's still a lot of confusion," he told the BBC.

"Our first concern was to make sure our own staff were safe. Most of them had made it to the parliament by the time the news filtered through.

"We had 120 visitors arriving from all over Ireland, including 88 who were in a flight above Brussels when the first explosions went off.

"They've been diverted to Amsterdam and as far as we're aware everybody is safe."

One of those aboard, Oisín MacCanna told well-wishers: "As someone who was literally mid-flight to Brussels when the attack happened, all I can say is I send my solidarity to those effected."

Another, Jim Roche sent "solidarity from Schipol Airport", adding "we must end this senseless terror and the Western-led wars that cause it. No more bombs anywhere".

Eurostar has cancelled all trains to and from Brussels.

Two blasts tore through the departures area of Zaventem airport shortly after 8am local time - people have been told not to travel to the capital, with all flights diverted.

An hour later, an explosion hit Maelbeek metro station, close to the EU's main buildings in Brussels.

European Commission vice-president Kristalina Georgieva said meetings were cancelled and urged people to "stay home or inside buildings" following reports of an explosion at Maelbeek station.

The metro station is close to the commission's Berlaymont headquarters, the European Parliament and the European Council's Justus Lipsius building in the Belgian capital.

Ms Georgieva said on Twitter: "Following situation in Brussels. EU institutions working together to ensure security of staff& premises.Please stay home or inside buildings.

"All EU institutions are at alert level ORANGE - all meetings on premises and outside cancelled, access only for staff with badges."

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson was at a meeting of the Environment Committee at the time and had passed the Maelbeek metro station shortly before the explosion.

He said "a minute of silence" was held for the victims.

Mr Nicholson told the BBC that the blasts were designed for maximum destruction.

"The time these went off was when everyone was heading to work," he said.

"Everywhere in the centre of town is being evacuated, we just don't know where they're going to hit next.

"I can't put [into] words what has happened."

He said he noticed heightened security when he was travelling in to the city from the airport on Monday night.

"A lot more police were on the route, parked in strategic areas.

"But as we know in Northern Ireland, the terrorists only have to be successful the once to claim success."

DUP member Diane Dodds described a "real sense of shock and fear here in Brussels" and a "city in lockdown".

The European Council cancelled all meetings for the morning.

Armed patrols had been a frequent sight around the EU institutions in recent months, following security alerts in the wake of the Paris attacks and some of the roads around the buildings have been closed.

The attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam, the main fugitive in the Paris attacks, was seized in Brussels.

However, an international security expert believes the attacks would have taken "quite a while" to plan as they involved explosives and targeting an airport.

Shashank Joshi, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, urged caution in viewing the atrocities solely as revenge for the arrest of Abdeslam.

He said terrorists risk the higher security at sites like airports in a bid to gain international attention.

"It is higher security than a metro stop or a concert venue. It's an international site. It's almost a trade-off between dealing with higher security and the number of headlines," he said.

"...Not all of these attacks are intelligence failures. It's an intelligence failure if it was something that was known and wasn't used, or dots weren't connected."