🔗 Share this article

Belgian police have taken into custody three people suspected of plotting an strike on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities labeled the reported plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and other government officials.

During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the premier's private residence, authorities uncovered a suspected IED and proof that the accused were planning to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.

While the intended targets of the attack were not officially named by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was one of them.

"The news of a intended strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," Prevot stated in a message on social media on Thursday.

"It highlights that we are dealing with a very real terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.

The three individuals arrested on charges of plotting a terrorist killing and involvement in the activities of a jihadist network all reside in the Antwerp region, per the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

By late Thursday, one suspect was freed, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and expected to be presented before a court on the next day.

Federal prosecutors said that the individuals were arrested after a judge ordered inspections of their residences in the location by officials assisted by explosive sniffer dogs.

Throughout these investigations that they discovered a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen stated at a news conference on that day.

Raids also found a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted.

The prosecutor said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in the nation so far this year - more than the total number of instances in last year.

During the spring, five people were convicted for a scheme last year to strike De Wever while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.