Brussels: A man wearing a fake explosive belt filled with salt and cookies who triggered a major security alert in Brussels and an emergency meeting of key government ministers on Tuesday has been arrested by Police and the City2 shopping mall has been sealed off.
Police said the man claimed to have been abducted and dropped off at the City2 complex, and that the “suicide belt” would be detonated remotely.
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 JB, finding materials that had apparently been used to make the fake belt, Brussels prosecutor Rym Kechiche said in a statement.
Confronted with this information, JB 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 JB, 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.
``The situation is now under control. The security services remain extremely vigilant,'' Michel said in a statement.
Crisis center spokesman Peter Mertens said the nation's security alert was not changed.
``That level, and the measures accompanying it, is already high,'' Mertens said. ``The situation of this morning has no impact on the existing measures.''
At the scene, police in hoods and military wearing helmets were seen patrolling around at least one major entry to the City 2 shopping center, and the demining squad was also called in. Some entries to the subway station were blocked, and underground traffic disrupted.
(With Agency input)
