The Belgian media reported earlier Wednesday that one of the believed suspects in Tuesday’s terror attacks in Brussels had been apprehended by the Belgian police.
Belgian Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw squashed that report soon after, identifying two brothers Ibrahim El Bakraoui, 29, and Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, as the masterminds behind the attacks, with the former blowing himself up at the airport and the latter on the metro. According to Belgian authorities, they are still searching for a third unidentified suspect who assisted Ibrahim in the airport attack, originally thought to be the arrested Najim Laachraoui.
La Libre Belgique, a Belgian newspaper, reported that the person arrested was misidentified as Laachraoui.
In a CCTV image taken from a surveillance video at Zaventem airport of the three suspects, the two brothers are both wearing black and a single glove. The third suspect, originally thought to be Laachraoui, is wearing a light-colored jacket and a hat covering part of his face. According to authorities, he had an explosive in a bag that later exploded and hurt no one — and the manhunt is still underway for him.
The series of explosions across the Belgian capital killed 31 people and injured at least 270 more Tuesday, just four days after authorities arrested Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the deadly November Paris attacks.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Belgium is observing three days of national mourning, as the country remains at its highest terrorism alert level.
