A planned jihadist attack with a drone against the Belgian Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, was foiled and three people were arrested this Thursday, October 9, Belgian justice reported.
He first mentioned “politicians” as the target of this planned attack, but those around the head of the Belgian government and several of his ministers confirmed that he was indeed the target.
“The news of a planned attack against Prime Minister Bart De Wever is deeply shocking,” declared in X the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Prévot, who supported the Head of Government, as did his Defense colleague, Théo Francken.
“All our support for you and your family,” he said in X. He also thanked the Belgian security services, as did Maxime Prévot.
“Instructions” to make a drone
Three young people were arrested on Thursday in Antwerp on suspicion of having prepared a “jihadist-inspired terrorist attack against politicians” using a drone, Belgian justice previously announced.
These arrests are part of an investigation into “attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” explained the head of the federal prosecutor’s office, Ann Fransen, during a press conference in Brussels.
“There are elements that indicate that the intention was to carry out a jihadist-inspired terrorist attack against politicians,” he continued. “There are also indications that the suspects’ goal was to build a drone to which the payload would be attached,” added Ann Fransen.
An improvised device found during a search
According to the press, the police searched a house a few hundred meters from the head of government’s home in Antwerp.
“During the search of the home of one of the suspects,” an improvised device, potentially explosive but not yet operational, was found, as well as a bag containing metal balls.
At the home of a second suspect, police discovered a 3D printer “that we suspect was intended to make parts useful to carry out an attack,” Ann Fransen said.
The suspects are adults born in 2001, 2002 and 2007. Two of them were questioned by the judicial police and will appear before an investigating judge on Friday. The third suspect was released.
Other attack plans have been thwarted in Belgium in recent years. A teenager suspected of planning an attack on a mosque was arrested in January in Brussels and weapons were seized from his home.
At the beginning of 2025, around 600 people were listed as extremists and were subject to special monitoring by Ocam, the Belgian agency that analyzes the terrorist threat. A large majority belongs to the jihadist movement, but some “included” are also there because of their sympathies for far-right movements.
Belgium has already been hit several times by terrorism, particularly jihadist attacks over the past decade. On March 22, 2016, thirty-two people died in two suicide attacks, at the airport and in the Brussels metro, perpetrated by the jihadist cell that was already behind the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France (131 dead). In October 2023, a radicalized Tunisian shot dead two Swedish fans on the street in Brussels during his national team’s match against Belgium.
Source: BFM TV
