Brussels cancels New Year’s Eve fireworks due to terror threat

Mayor Yvan Mayeur says it would be impossible to vet every one of the thousands at annual event

By AP 30 December 2015, 10:36 pm

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A Belgian Army soldier patrols on a main boulevard in Brussels, Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

BRUSSELS (AP) — The New Year’s Eve fireworks display is being canceled in Belgium’s capital due to threats of an extremist attack.

Yvan Mayeur, the Belgian capital’s mayor, said the decision was taken Wednesday evening after consultation with government officials.

“We are forced to cancel considering the risk analysis done by the Crisis Center,” he told the French-language RTBF network.

Last Dec. 31, Mayeur said, 100,000 people turned out in the Belgian capital to ring in the new year.

“In these circumstances, we can’t check everyone,” Mayeur said.

Brussels was home to four of the radical Islamic attackers who killed 130 people in Paris Nov. 13. The week, Belgian authorities arrested two people in connection with another suspected plot to attack police, soldiers and popular Brussels sites during the holidays.