An explosion which occurred at the crime laboratories in a Brussels suburb has been downscaled by police as a criminal incident and not a terrorist attack.
A car rammed through three fences, leading to an explosion and a large fire shortly before 02:30 local time. Media reports in Belgium said “one or more” suspects had set off a bomb near the laboratories. However, Police could not confirm that a bomb had exploded.
Belgium’s terror alert level remains high since bomb attacks on Brussels airport and the city’s metro in which 32 people were killed in March.
Police and emergency services attended the incident. No casualties were reported in the latest blast.
Pierre Meys, spokesperson for the Fire service described the blast as ‘extremely powerful’ and said it was ‘probably not accidental’. Up to 30 firefighters extinguished fires following the blast at the National Institute of Criminology.
The building is reported to have suffered significant damage as a result of the blast.
The lab is used by Forensic analysis linked to criminal cases but this is not the only laboratory of its kind linked to the police.
