Videos show suspect 'neutralized' by police in Brussels
UPDATED 4:30 p.m. PT with more details about arrests.
BRUSSELS -- Residents in the Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek reported hearing gunshots and at least three explosions on Friday afternoon, amid reports that Belgian police were carrying out a raid and had made arrests.
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Dramatic videos show police with rifles drawn as they approach a man, who was wearing black and lying injured at a tram platform amid broken glass. Officers appear to escort a child away from the man, then back away.
Police apprehended three individuals during sweeps Friday, including the injured man in Schaerbeek, who had been shot in the leg by authorities, according to the Associated Press. Officials shot another one of the detainees in the leg, as well, the wire service said.
The three blasts heard by residents were controlled explosions, Mayor Bernard Clerfayt said, according to Reuters. Clerfayt told Belgian public broadcaster RTBF that the injured man in the videos was suspected to be linked to Tuesday's bombings that killed 31 in the Brussels airport and subway system.
Before apprehending the man, who was carrying a suspicious bag, authorities used an explosives-detecting robot to slowly approach the man. It's unclear at this point what was in the bag.
In a third video, police are seen grabbing him by the arms and dragging him away behind a waiting car.
Later, a policeman wearing a protective suit was seen by The Associated Press inspecting the scene.
Leila, a 14-year-old Belgian girl was getting her hair cut in a shop across the street from the metro station when she saw police activity outside. Leila, who was there with her older cousin, told Mashable that the customers in Mes Haires Coiffure hid in the basement when they heard gunshots and remained there for an hour.
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"We were super scared and went to the basement."
"First we saw the police coming with a big shot gun," Leila said. "Then we heard shots so we were super scared and went to the basement."
When the customers came back upstairs, they saw what Leila described as a man on the tram tracks who was holding a bag. She added that she couldn't see him very well.
The suspect, who has not been identified, was said to be a "big fish," according to unnamed sources speaking to the Belgian broadcaster RTL.
Brussels resident Louise Roger, 21, was passing through the Schaerbeek neighborhood when she witnessed the raid.
She said she heard gunshots around 2 p.m. and looked toward the tracks, where she could see the man.
"He couldn’t walk, he couldn’t, I think he stayed on the ground. He was on the tracks," Roger said, referring to the man who was taken down by police.
"I heard a young girl screaming, and the police said, 'Leave her. Go.'"
"There were the two gunshots; I heard a young girl screaming, and the police said, 'Leave her. Go.'"
Another witness who watched the operation said police ordered the man to remove his jacket, "probably to see if it had or not an explosive belt," and that several loud pops were then heard. The man then dropped to the ground.
RTL said the man had been under police surveillance "for some time."
At least one suspect in the airport bombing is still believed to be on the run.
The Associated Press also reported that the three people who had been arrested in Brussels Friday -- including one in Schaerbeek -- were linked to the arrest on Thursday of a man in Paris believed to be plotting a new attack.
Schaerbeek was home to at least one apartment used by the men who plotted the Brussels attacks. A taxi driver who drove two of the suspected bombers to the airport directed police to their home earlier this week, where they found leftover explosives and a will, believed to be Ibrahim El Bakraoui's, that was left on a computer found in a trash can.
At least six others reportedly linked to the attacks were detained in raids by Brussels authorities on Thursday night.
Authorities have lowered Belgium's terror-threat level by one notch, although they said the situation remained grave and another attack is "likely and possible."
"The danger," said Paul Van Tigchelt, the head of the terror assessment authority, "has not gone away."
Additional reporting by Brian Ries in New York.
Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press.
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Megan Specia was Mashable's Assistant Real-Time News Editor and joined the team in September 2014. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of New Hampshire after growing up in the Jersey 'burbs. She made her way to New York via a four year stopover in Dublin. Megan previously worked as a journalist and editor at Storyful in both Dublin and New York. Before all of that, though, her claim to fame was as head cake arranger and purveyor of all things sweet at Queen of Tarts cafe in Dublin, where she developed a serious addiction to macarons.
