Police have launched a manhunt for a second man who appears involved in the suicide bombing at Maelbeek metro station Tuesday morning, Belgian media report. Authorities earlier identified Khalid El Bakraoui as the assailant in the metro attack that killed 20 people and injured scores more.
But video surveillance at the Maelbeek station showed a second man walking with El Bakraoui carrying a large bag, Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported, citing police confirmation.
El Bakraoui’s brother Ibrahim has been formally identified as one of the two suicide bombers in the airport attacks that occurred the same morning. Media have identified the second bomber as Najim Laachraoui, a bombmaker for Islamic State, who is considered a key accomplice in the November Paris attacks.
A third man, captured in airport video pushing a trolley with the two suicide bombers, remains at large.
Islamic State claims responsibility
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks, as it did for the Paris attacks in November.
Indeed, mounting evidence points to increasingly closer links between the Brussels and Paris terrorist strikes, raising questions about lapses in cross-border intelligence and security cooperation.
Those questions will be at the forefront of the EU meeting Thursday afternoon.
“We need to have a union of security,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said at a news conference in Brussels Wednesday, urging member states to adopt the Commissions proposals on tighter external border controls and measures to make it more difficult to acquire firearms within the EU.