Witness recalls hiding under suitcase after bombs went off at Brussels airport
At least 30 people are dead, and dozens more are injured, following multiple attacks in Brussels today.
On Tuesday morning, two bombs exploded at Brussels' Zaventem airport. About an hour later, another bomb went off at the Maelbeek train station.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Belgian authorities have released a photo from airport security footage that shows three male suspects. Two men, thought to be suicide bombers, are believed to be dead. Police have issued an arrest warrant for the third man in the picture.
Julian Firkins — a British man who has been living in Brussels for two decades — was dropping off his girlfriend at the airport this morning. While she waited in line to check her baggage, Firkins went to a nearby coffee shop to grab a drink. That's when he heard the first bomb go off.
"I immediately turned around and ran straight back to my girlfriend who had dived on the floor. I dived on top of her and pulled her suitcase over both of us just to protect us from falling debris," Firkins tells As it Happens host Carol Off. "There were just people running around and stuff was falling from the ceiling. The windows had been blown in as well."
Firkins and his girlfriend got up off the floor when airport staff told everyone to run towards the exits. Once outside, Firkins says he saw many people who were very badly injured sitting on benches or lying on the floor.
"My girlfriend and I helped a woman who had a serious injury on her leg. It was shrapnel embedded in her foot. The poor thing … She was screaming at us to take her shoe off. But, we could see very clearly that we shouldn't … because it was the only thing holding her foot together," says Firkins.
Neither Firkins or his girlfriend were injured in the attack. He calls it "miraculous."
"I'm still a little bit in shock and I'm just in survival mode, so I'm not freaking out or panicking or losing it," he says. "That's the nature of terrorism. It's a very efficient method of putting fear into people and stopping them from being able to live their normal lives as they want to live."
Belgium has raised its terror alert to the highest level. Airports and train stations are closed.
Following the attacks, As it Happens also spoke with Belgian member of parliament Georges-Louis Bouchez.
"There are no words for this situation," says Bouchez. "We've seen a lot of terrorist attacks in other countries, but it's not the same when a terrorist attack arrives in your country."
There has been some speculation as to whether or not Tuesday's attacks were executed in retaliation to last week's arrest of Salah Abdeslam — a suspect in the Paris attacks. Bouchez, however, says this is unlikely.
"It's not possible to organize this type of operation in two or three days. It takes more time than that."
Bouchez worries there will be a backlash against immigrants and refugees following these attacks. But, he warns, "Don't make generalizations about the situation. All migrants, for example, aren't terrorists."
"The people who make terrorist attacks want the European people to be against the migrants and immigration. For them, they want the war between two worlds. With this operation, it's the goal that they reached."
NOTE: Both interviews were recorded during the afternoon of Tuesday Mar. 22. It's possible there were developments in the story. For the latest, follow CBC's live blog on the Brussels attacks.