Brussels airport terminal 'intact' after bomb damage inspected

Updated

Belgian officials have completed their initial investigation at Brussels International Airport, after a provisional inspection of the terminal found the main building to be stable.

Five days after the two airport blasts which killed at least 14 people, a statement published on Brussels Airport's website confirmed that technicians and independent experts had judged the main and connector buildings to be "intact".

The statement also disclosed that the locations where hand luggage and custom checks are carried out can also be used again.

Airport officials are now discussing plans to install temporary check-in desks, but pointed out that the process of identifying a suitable location was still being carried out in consultation with airlines and luggage handlers.

Shortly after the announcement, Belgian media also reported that prosecutors in Brussels have charged a second man in connection with a foiled attack on Paris.

The man, identified only as Abderamane A, was charged with involvement in a terrorist group, according to Belgian media.

In a statement in French, the state-owned Belga news agency said that prosecutors confirmed that the suspect had been arrested on Friday in Schaerbeek, after he was shot and wounded by armed police at a tram stop.

It was not confirmed by Belgian prosecutors.

The reported arrest would be the second to be made in connection with a plot to stage another terror attack in Paris, after nine people were arrested for their suspected involvement in the terror attacks in Belgium last Thursday.

It is understood that the first arrest was made in Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris, where police detained Reda Kriket, 34, for his suspected involvement in a militant plot that officials believe was "at an advanced stage".

Kriket's arrest was followed by a raid on an apartment in Argenteuil, also near the French capital, where law enforcement officers seized two kilogrammes of the explosive TATP and a Kalashnikov rifle.

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