1ST LEAD All clear given after bomb alert at Brussels airport By Helen Maguire and Ansgar Haase, dpa
Brussels (dpa) - The all clear has been given at Brussels airport following a suspected bomb alert that was later ruled out as unfounded, Belgian officials said Wednesday evening.After an initial inquiry, the federal prosecution concluded that there was no serious threat, the RTBF broadcaster reported."There is currently no concrete threat," a spokesman for Interior Minister Jan Jambon said according to the Belga news agency. "Security measures have not been taken, and there is no meeting of the crisis cell."Initially, the airport took "several measures" following a threat that was being taken "very seriously," a federal prosecution spokesman said earlier, according to the Belga news agency. Broadcaster VRT reported bomb alerts on two flights headed for the airport and said rescue services had been placed on high alert.Scandinavian airline SAS was one of the airlines that was affected by the scare, but had not received specific threats, SAS spokeswoman Karin Nyman told dpa late Wednesday.Nyman said that Brussels airport control had received a threat that concerned inbound flights to Brussels, and had conveyed the information to airlines including SAS, which had two flights in the air at the time.One of the flights departed from the Norwegian capital, Oslo, the other from the Swedish capital, Stockholm.Both planes landed safely, and passengers were debriefed by the pilots, Nyman said.Passengers were informed about the threat after arrival in Brussels, according to a Belgian reporter who was on the Oslo flight. The Oslo flight landed at 7:20 pm (1720 GMT), the Stockholm flight landed 20 minutes later.Nyman said SAS was continuing to fly to Brussels as scheduled.The airport was the scene of explosions killing more than 30 people on March 22, when two attackers blew themselves up there while a third man set off explosives at an underground station in the Belgian capital.The country is on its second highest terrorism alert level, meaning that the authorities estimate the terrorist threat to be "serious, possible and likely."