Belgium maintains security alert level despite threat report

Belgium’s security threat analysis center says Wednesday it is keeping the security alert status at its current level despite reports that fighters from Syria could pose an imminent threat.

“We are still on level three, quite a high level of threat,” says Benoit Ramacker, spokesman for the Crisis Center. Level three out of a possible four means the threat is considered serious, possible and probable.

The Derniere Heure tabloid reports Belgium’s anti-terror office has warned police that fighters with access to weapons could have left Syria about 10 days ago bound for Belgium and France.

The paper, which says it had obtained an alert message, says fighters traveling without passports are believed to be trying to reach Europe by boat via Turkey and Greece. A Brussels shopping mall, an American fast-food chain and police could be among their targets.

Ramacker says, “These kinds of potential targets are under protection anyway” and that “nothing has changed in terms of security.”

He declines to comment specifically on the reports, saying only that “there is a lot of information coming in.”

Brussels police say they had not seen any such warning from the anti-terror office.

— AP