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| Europe |
| Brussels threat level reduced |
| 2015-11-27 |
| The Belgian authorities have reduced the threat level in Brussels from its highest level of four to three. The city was locked down for nearly a week, with schools, universities, and the metro system closed and soldiers deployed on the streets. The escalation to level four came after suspects in the Islamic State attacks in Paris were linked to the city. At least one suspected Paris gunman - Salah Abdeslam - remains at large. He lived in Brussels for several years. His brother Brahim, who died detonating a suicide vest in Paris, was also a city resident. "We can confirm that the Threat Analysis Coordination Agency re-evaluated the threat level from four to level three," a spokesman for the crisis centre said. The reduction to level three lowers the perceived threat from "serious and imminent" to "possible and likely", bringing Brussels in line with the rest of the country. The lowering of the threat level came as a surprise, since the government had said that it would probably keep the highest threat level in the capital through the weekend. |
| Posted by:Steve White |