BRUSSELS: An explosion rocked the central train station in Brussels on Tuesday and a man was shot by police during the incident, prosecutors told Belgian media.

The incident took place at around 1900GMT, causing the city’s Gare Centrale to be evacuated. The nearby Grand Place, a major tourist destination, was also evacuated. “A crowd panicked in the station and ran for the tracks after an incident,” said Arnaud Reyman, spokesman for Infrabel, the Belgian railway operator.

Firemen were called to the scene after a report of a small explosion, the RTBF broadcaster reported.

According to a witness, the suspect in the explosion shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’.

The incident comes a day after a man mowed down Muslims near a mosque in London, and a radical Islamist on a terror watch-list rammed a car laden with weapons and gas into a police vehicle in Paris.

Brussels has been on high alert since the militant Islamic State group’s suicide bombers struck the city’s airport and metro in March last year, killing 32 people.

Soldiers have been stationed at railway stations, government buildings and European Union institutions.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2017