Reuters: Over 30 people were killed in twin attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on Tuesday, triggering security alerts across western Europe and bringing some cross-border transport to a halt.

According the Belgian broadcaster VRT, 20 people were killed in the blast on a metro train while another 14 died in explosions at Zaventem airport. 

A witness said he heard shouts in Arabic shortly before two blasts struck a packed airport departure lounge at Brussels airport. The federal prosecutor said one of the blasts was probably triggered by a suicide bomber.

The Belgian health minister said 11 people were killed in the airport bombing and 81 wounded.

The blasts at the airport and metro station occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in November militant attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

Belgian police and combat troops on the streets had been on alert for any reprisal action but the attacks took place in crowded public areas where people and bags are not searched.

Video showed devastation in the hall with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor. Some passengers emerged from the terminal with blood spattered over their clothes. Smoke rose from the building through shattered windows and passengers fled down a slipway, some still hauling their bags.

Many of the dead and wounded were badly injured in the legs, one airport worker told Reuters, suggesting at least one bomb in a bag.

Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, all wary of spillover from conflict in Syria, were among states announcing extra security measures.

All public transport in Brussels was shut down, as it was in London during 2005 Islamist militant attacks there that killed 52. Authorities appealed to citizens not to use overloaded telephone networks, extra troops were sent into the city and the Belgian Crisis Centre, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the population: “Stay where you are”.

British Sky News television’s Alex Rossi, at the airport, said he heard two “very, very loud explosions”.

“I could feel the building move. There was also dust and smoke as well...I went toward where the explosion came from and there were people coming out looking very dazed and shocked.”

Alphonse Youla, 40, who works at the airport, told Reuters he heard a man shouting out in Arabic before the first explosion. “Then the glass ceiling of the airport collapsed.”

“I helped carry out five people dead, their legs destroyed,” he said, his hands covered in blood.

A witness said the blasts occurred at a check-in desk.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel spoke of “a black time for our country”.

“What we feared has come to pass. Our country has been struck by attacks which are blind, violent and cowardly.”

The STIB public transport operator said 15 were killed on board the metro train and 55 injured. Belga news agency cited the fire brigade as saying 11 were killed at the airport, but there was still some uncertainty about casualties.

The blast hit the train as it left Maelbeek station, close to European Union institutions, heading to the city center.

The VRT public broadcaster carried a photograph of a metro carriage at a platform with doors and windows completely blown out, its structure deformed and the interior mangled and charred.

A local journalist tweeted a photograph of a person lying covered in blood among smoke outside Maelbeek metro station, on the main Rue de la Loi avenue which connects central Brussels with the EU institutions. Ambulances were ferrying the wounded away and sirens rang out across the area.

The federal prosecutor told a news conference one of the two explosions at the airport was likely to have been caused by a suicide bomber.

Brussels attacks a ‘black day for Europe’

AFP: Belgium’s European partners responded with shock and solidarity Tuesday after “terrorist attacks” at Brussels airport and a city metro station near the European Union’s institutional heart left at least 21 people dead.

Russia and Turkey – themselves targets of attacks in recent months – condemned the blasts, saying they bore out the need to fight terrorism.

“Today is a black day for #Europe. The horrible events in #Brussels affect us all. We are steadfastly at the Belgians’ side,” German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter.

“Our Union’s capital is under attack. We mourn the dead and pledge to conquer terror through democracy,” the Greek foreign ministry said in a tweet.

It added in French,”Nous sommes tous Bruxellois,” – “We are all citizens of Brussels.”

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven described the blasts as “an attack against democratic Europe. We will never accept that terrorists attack our open societies.”

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said: “My heart and spirit in Brussels, Europe,” while Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said “the Brussels attacks strike the heart of our Europe.”

Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen denounced the blasts as a “despicable attack.”

In other reactions:

nRussian President Vladimir Putin: The “barbarous crimes... demonstrate once again that terrorism has no borders and threatens people around the world. Fighting this evil calls for the most active international cooperation.”

nTurkish Foreign Minister Volkan Bozkir: “Every effort must continue to fight terrorism without distinction and those who support terrorism.”

nPolish President Andrzej Duda: “The fight against terrorism is the duty of every one of us.” 

nSerbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic: “The world is shocked by these terrorist attacks, which jeopardise all the values of civilisation that we strongly support.”

nThe Syrian opposition, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said: “The people of Syria stand with the people of Belgium in solidarity... The world must stand united to defeat terrorism.”

‘The whole of Europe has been hit’: Hollande

​AFP: French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels that killed at least 26 people struck at “the whole of Europe”.

“Through the attacks in Brussels, the whole of Europe has been hit,” Hollande said in a statement, urging the continent to take “vital steps in the face of the seriousness of the threat”.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: “We are at war. Over the past few months in Europe, we have endured several acts of war.”

France, which neighbours Belgium to the south, was hit by two major terror attacks in 2015 and several of the jihadists involved came from Brussels.

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Brussels attacks ‘violate’ Islamic teachings: top Muslim body Al-Azhar

​AFP : Sunni Islam’s leading seat of learning, Al-Azhar, said Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels “violate the tolerant teachings of Islam,” and urged the international community to confront the “epidemic” of terrorism.

“Al-Azhar strongly condemns these terrorist attacks. These heinous crimes violate the tolerant teachings of Islam,” the Cairo-based Al-Azhar said in a statement.

“If the international community does not unite to confront this epidemic, the corrupt will not stop from committing heinous crimes against the innocent.”

The Egyptian foreign ministry also condemned the attacks that left at least 26 people dead and dozens wounded in Brussels.

“The time has come for the world to make a final stand to deal with the phenomenon of international terrorism,” ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement issued in English.

He called for steps to tackle it at the “financing and ideological levels ... and to prevent the recruitment of more individuals by criminal terrorist groups”.