Belgian police arrested two minors, who were suspected of planning a terrorist attack against the police, in the area of Eupen in the Liège province last weekend.
Searches took place in Eupen and La Calamine, both in the Liège province, last Saturday. In a press release, the federal prosecutor's office specified that the two minors, aged 16 and 17, were brought before the investigating judge and the juvenile judge, and were then placed in a youth protection institution.
They were arrested on suspicion of attempting a terror attack and for participation in a terrorist organisation last Saturday, the federal prosecutor confirmed to RTBF.
The two had allegedly recorded a video message in which they had sworn allegiance to terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS), and were planning to attack at least one police station, reports De Morgen.
Belgium's Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis (OCAM) will maintain the current level of a terrorist threat at 2, on a scale of 4, for the whole country. Level 2, described as "medium", means a threat is "unlikely but not non-existent."
The two were arrested on Saturday, meaning before the attack in the Austrian capital of Vienna, which was claimed by IS, took place on Monday.
Several terrorist attacks have taken place in recent weeks, particularly in France. In mid-October, a teacher was killed in a Paris suburb after showing Mohammed cartoons in class, and about ten days later, three people were killed in a knife attack in the city of Nice.
"Our security services are on standby day and night and are very alert," Federal Minister for Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne told VRT. "We work well together with our international partners and read along on social media. There is, of course, no such thing as zero risk. This case shows that the danger has not gone away."
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
