Schools in Antwerp evacuated after bomb threats

AFTER three schools received reports by telephone that bombs had been placed in their vicinity, they were evacuated and students were sent home, according to a spokesperson for the Antwerp police.

The police searched all three schools but haven’t found anything suspicious and there has been no request to bring in the Belgium bomb squad. 

At Antwerp Central station and Astrid metro station suspicious packages were found, however both stations remained open. Around the Palace of Justice in Namur police have installed a security zone and nobody can access the palace or the nearby square. According to the attorney of Namur, this was also done after a bomb threat.

Belgium is being particularly careful after it has become clear that among the terrorists responsible for the attacks in Paris, three were living in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek.  

On Thursday November 19, Belgian police conducted six raids in that neighbourhood. The raids were directed at family and friends of Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up outside the Stade de France.