Reopening of Brussels airport delayed

Brussels airport said it would not reopen on Wednesday despite drills to test resuming partial services after the suicide bombings that struck its departure hall and a metro train, as Belgium lowered the death toll to 32.

Zaventem airport has been closed since twin bombings wrecked the departure hall on March 22, in coordinated suicide attacks that were claimed by the Islamic State group and which also hit Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels.

A total of 32 people were killed in Belgium’s worst-ever attacks, the government said, down from an earlier toll of 35 following confusion between two lists of people who had died at the scene and in hospital. “After thorough verification: number of victims goes down to 32. Still 94 people in hospital,” Health Minister Maggie de Block tweeted.

All the victims have now been identified, many of them foreign nationals –testament to the cosmopolitan nature of a city that is home to both the European Union and NATO.

Several employees returned to the airport on Tuesday for a large-scale test run to see if services could partially resume from Wednesday, but those hopes were dashed.