Fake suicide belt sparks alert in Belgium

Associated Press

BRUSSELS

A man wearing a fake explosive belt filled with salt and cookies sparked a major security alert in Brussels and an emergency meeting of key government ministers Tuesday by claiming he would be blown up outside a shopping center.

Police said the man claimed to have been abducted and dropped off at the downtown City 2 complex. He said that the “suicide belt” would be detonated remotely, prompting a response that highlighted the state of frayed nerves among the security services and government. The suspect later admitted he had made up the whole story.

Belgium has been on at least its second-highest security alert level for about eight months since the Nov. 13 massacres in Paris that killed 130 people. On March 22, suicide attacks on the Brussels underground and airport killed 32 people and injured hundreds. Extra police and military have been mobilized, guarding major buildings, nuclear plants and parts of the transport network.

Police searched the home of the mother of the suspect, a man in his twenties identified in official documents only as J.B., finding materials that had apparently been used to make the fake belt, Brussels prosecutor Rym Kechiche said in a statement.

Confronted with this information, J.B. admitted falsifying his story. He said he had given police the license plate number of a car he spotted in a street. The driver of the vehicle was questioned and then quickly released, Kechiche said.

Prosecutors said J.B., who had recently informed police that he had been enlisted to join the Islamic State extremist group in Syria, was known to police and is thought to have had psychiatric problems. He has been remanded in custody over the hoax and a psychological assessment has been ordered.

Straight after the pre-dawn alert, Prime Minister Charles Michel changed his morning program and a meeting of the Belgian crisis center was called.