Brussels eye-witness says city on lockdown

A British-Arab independent diplomat based in Brussels told Middle East Eye that the city appeared to be on lockdown.

"They've closed off most of the roads here, they've closed off access to Maalbeek, all the cars are kind of being diverted away, there's four or five police vans here which are kind of just sitting. There's two or three soldiers in full gear just sitting outside the [EU] commission building."

He said that he had heard the reported controlled explosion at Maalbeek, but added that, despite the tense atmosphere, he didn't fear for his own safety.

"To be brutally honest, I live in an Arab area so I'm not too worried myself."

He said that there had been frustration at the police response to the attacks.

"People are saying to me that Belgian police just aren't equipped to deal with this kind of thing and they've known about this threat for a long time now but they've either been unable to do anything or they've been a bit too scared to do anything, precisely for fear of provoking this kind of attack."