Reported Plot to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Prevented

Belgium's authorities have arrested three individuals suspected of planning an attack on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities characterized the reported plan as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and other elected representatives.

During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the PM's private residence, officials found a suspected IED and evidence that the suspects were preparing to deploy a UAV.

While the planned victims of the strike were not officially named by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that Belgium's leader was among them.

"Reports of a intended strike targeting Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," Prevot stated in a update on online platforms on the day of the arrests.

"It highlights that we are dealing with a serious extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he added.

The three suspects taken into custody on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the activities of a terrorist group all reside in the Antwerp region, as stated by the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s.

By Thursday evening, one of the individuals was freed, while two others were still being questioned and likely to be presented before a court on Friday.

Federal prosecutors stated that the suspects were taken into custody after a court official authorized inspections of their dwellings in the location by officials backed by explosive sniffer dogs.

Throughout these investigations that they found a device which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen said at a press conference on the day of the events.

Raids also revealed a collection of ball bearings and a 3D printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added.

The prosecutor disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the country in the current year - more than the total number of instances in 2024.

Earlier this year, five individuals were found guilty for a previous year's plan to strike De Wever while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.