The U.S. Embassy in Belgium has officially released a new security post as of Wednesday morning in which they warned that local officials have increased the overall presence of law enforcement on the streets after a series of threats were allegedly made about a possible attack against the 2 and 6 metro lines in Brussels.
“Police have heightened security in response to a threat of a possible metro attack to be conducted today, March 8,” explained the embassy in a release. “Continue to be aware of your surroundings and use caution when traveling in and around Brussels.”
The embassy sent out recommendations to U.S. citizens to steer clear of the area and avoid being in crowds, be aware of their surroundings, keep a very low profile, keep an eye on the local media outlets, and monitor any alerts sent out from the State Department.
A report from the Brussels Times explained that Belgium’s National Crisis Centre had explained that the threat of a possible attack from terrorists against the metro train did spark an extremely increased level of vigilance, but that in all likelihood an attack was not actually imminent.
The report indicated that these threats were originally posted to the European Commission via a number of emails which were “written in Russian threatening an ‘explosion'” as of this past Wednesday.
These threats were reportedly sent out by the very same person who reached out to the European Commission in February and once again as of this past month warning that attacks would be done in response to a number of “aggressive policies” from the European Union targeting Russia.
Belgium officials reportedly tried to express that they think that “an attack is unlikely.”
The threats were being taken quite seriously due to the horrific Islamic terrorist attacks that the country was made to suffer through back in 2016 that resulted in the deaths of dozens with the injury of multiple hundred more.
The attacks from ISIS terrorists were carried out by suicide bombers against Brussels Airport and at the Maelbeek subway station in central Brussels.