🔗 Share this article

Belgian police have arrested three individuals suspected of planning an strike on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities labeled the alleged plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the PM and additional politicians.

During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, close to the prime minister's private residence, authorities found a alleged homemade bomb and proof that the accused were planning to employ a drone.

While the intended targets of the assault were not officially named by the federal prosecutors, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that Belgium's leader was one of them.

"The news of a premeditated attack directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister wrote in a update on X on the day of the arrests.

"This underscores that we are confronting a genuine extremist danger and that we have to stay alert," he continued.

The three individuals taken into custody on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the functions of a extremist organization all are based in the Antwerp region, per the legal authorities. They were had birth years in the early 2000s.

As of late Thursday, one suspect was let go, while two others were under interrogation and scheduled to be presented before a court on the following day.

The prosecution stated that the accused were detained after a magistrate authorized raids of their homes in the urban area by police officers backed by explosives-trained dogs.

Throughout these searches that they located a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a press conference on Thursday.

Raids also found a container of metal spheres and a 3D printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she noted.

The prosecutor said that there had been 80 extremist probes initiated in the country this year - exceeding the full amount of cases in the previous year.

During the spring, five people were sentenced for a scheme last year to target De Wever while he was serving as the mayor of Antwerp.