Bomb threat at Brussels Airport, passengers and crew members blocked inside the airport

A bomb threat on Saturday evening at Brussels Airport in Belgium resulted in a lock-down of part of the terminal building. Arriving passengers were not allowed to leave the aircraft or enter the baggage reclaim area. The departure hall has also been evacuated to perform a search. 

The Federal Police said to investigate the suspicious report, believed to be a bomb threat, with officers carrying automatic weapons. Passengers on at least one unknown flight were not allowed to leave the aircraft and stayed inside for over one hour.

While passengers started to become impatient, the airport requested passengers to remain calm and to await instructions. Crew members were also affected by the search.

The arrivals level was cleared shortly after 01:30, after waiting for almost 2.5 hours. The departures hall and the baggage area had been evacuated to allow the police to inspect the premises.

The police received a suspicious report, the airport spokesperson and a spokesperson for the federal police explained. As a security measure, it was decided to evacuate certain areas of the airport and then conduct a thorough check. More specifically, this concerned the departures hall and the area where baggage is collected.

While waiting for news from the police, several hundred passengers had been asked to wait in the terminal and were not allowed to reach the baggage hall. Others were not allowed to leave the planes in order to avoid having too many people in front of the border controls.

All these people could later access the baggage hall, where the waiting times were nevertheless significant, according to messages posted on social networks