Alleged Plan to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Prevented

Belgian law enforcement have taken into custody three suspects allegedly involved in plotting an attack on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.

Prosecutors described the suspected plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the PM and other elected representatives.

During raids conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, in proximity to the PM's private residence, officials found a alleged improvised explosive device and evidence that the accused were preparing to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.

While the prospective targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was included in the targets.

"Information of a premeditated assault aimed at PM Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot declared in a post on X on Thursday.

"It highlights that we are confronting a very real extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he added.

The three people detained on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the functions of a extremist organization all reside in Antwerp, per the legal authorities. They were born in the early 2000s.

On Thursday evening, one of the individuals was freed, while the remaining two were under interrogation and scheduled to face a judge on the next day.

Federal prosecutors stated that the accused were detained after a court official directed searches of their homes in the urban area by officials backed by explosives-trained dogs.

It was during these raids that they found a object which appeared to be an IED, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a news conference on the day of the events.

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

The prosecutor disclosed that there had been 80 extremist probes initiated in the country so far this year - surpassing the overall count of instances in last year.

Earlier this year, five individuals were found guilty for a scheme last year to strike De Wever while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.