A “major, imminent” terror attack in Belgium has been foiled.
Two suspects were killed and another was taken into custody after a police raid on a terror cell in Verviers, an industrial town about 80 miles southwest of the capital of Brussels.
Those targeted had been under surveillance since recently returning from Syria, and planned to carry out an attack on police buildings in the coming days or even hours, Magistrate Eric Van der Sypt said.
The operation and subsequent raid was part of a investigation into the extremists that had been going on for weeks and had no known link to the Paris terror attacks last week, Sypt said.
No civilians or officers were injured in the intense firefight the suspects held with authorities in the upper level of a building near a train station in Verviers, Sypt said.
“These were extremely well-armed men” with automatic weapons, he said, according to USA Today.
Belgium simultaneously raised its terror alert to its second-highest level, as additional anti-terror raids were underway near Brussels and Verviers alike, according to Sypt.
According to AFP, Islamic State militants threatened upcoming attacks on Belgium in a video released Wednesday.
At least 300 people have left Belgium to fight alongside extremist militants in Syria and Iraq, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalism in London. A total of 2,500 people from the European Union have left to join extremists in the Middle East.
