Brussels attacks: Police release video of third airport attacker
30 March 2016 5:07 AM IST
Belgian police have released CCTV footage in an attempt to identify the third attacker at Brussels airport, whose bomb did not explode and who fled the scene.
The man is seen wearing light-coloured clothing and a hat.
Meanwhile, the Belgian Crisis Centre said it had revised the death toll up to 35 after four people died of their injuries in hospital.
The attacks were claimed by so-called Islamic State IS). The death toll does not include the three attackers.
Investigators have not commented on reports in the Belgian media that the third airport attacker is Faycal Cheffou, a freelance journalist who was arrested last Thursday outside the prosecutors office.
On Saturday a man named Faycal C was charged with “participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders,” a prosecutors statement said.
Separately, three men were charged on Monday with belonging to a terrorist group.
The three men - whose names were given as Yassine A, Mohamed B and Aboubaker O - were arrested during raids on 13 addresses on Sunday. A fourth man was released without charge. More arrests have also taken place in relation to what authorities say were planned attacks on France.
A man already in Belgian custody was reported to have been charged in connection with a foiled attack in the Paris region. Separately, Dutch police announced on Sunday evening that they had detained a Frenchman, 32, in Rotterdam at the request of French authorities.
He was arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack in France and will be extradited to the country. Three other people were also detained.
The Frenchman is allegedly linked to Reda Kriket, who was arrested in a Paris suburb on Thursday and said to be in the “advanced stage” of plotting an attack.
Brussels death toll rises to 35
Belgian officials on Monday raised the death toll from last week’s devastating Islamic State suicide attacks on Brussels airport and the metro to 35.
Officials from the government’s crisis centre said 31 people died at the two attack sites and four had died in hospital. Three bombers were also killed.
“The prosecutor has figures for the people who died at the scene of the crime... and the health authority is responsible for the people who died in hospital in the hours following the attacks,” Belgian prosecutors’ spokeswoman Ine Van Wymersch told reporters.
Test scheduled for reopening of Brussels airport
A week after devastating suicide bomb attacks, Brussels Airport will test its capacity to partially resume passenger service.
But it’s too early to say when service might actually resume, an airport official said on Monday.
Florence Muls, the airport’s external communications manager, said 800 staff members tomorrow will test temporary infrastructure and new arrangements designed for passenger check-in. The Belgian government must approve the new system, Muls said, before Brussels Airport can resume handling passenger traffic.
Two suicide bombers on March 22 caused great damage to the airport's departure hall, and along with another suicide bomber who blew himself up on a Brussels subway train, killed at least 31 people and injured some 270.
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