Belgium Receives 60 Reports on Potential Terrorists Daily - Media

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - The Belgian Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis, operating under the authority of the Federal Public Service Interior, started receiving about 60 reports daily from citizens about individuals who pose a potential terrorist threat after the deadly knife and shooting attack in the city of Liege, De Morgen reported Saturday.

According to De Morgen newspaper, reports come from vigilant citizens, social workers and prison guards.

Within the last several years, Belgium was shaken by a number of terror attacks. On 29 May, a man attacked two police agents in the Belgian city of Liege with a knife, took hold of their arms and shot them and then one passer-by dead on Tuesday, in what local prosecutors are investigating as a potential terrorist attack. The perpetrator was killed by the police. According to media reports, the man, who was well-known to the police for theft, vandalism and small-time drug trafficking, was radicalized in the prison of Lantin.

Two woman cops and one civilian killed in terror attack in Liege.
Terrorist shot down /Belgium pic.twitter.com/mYP8cXZI5f

— Harry Boone (@towersight) May 29, 2018

​The March 2016 bombings in Brussels metro and airport left more than 30 people dead and over 300 injured, leading to the introduction of the highest forth terror threat level, which was subsequently lowered.

A Belgian flag reading "Brussels my beauty, I am Brussels" flutters as people gather at the makeshift memorial outside the stock exchange in Brussels on March 27, 2016 an area which has become an unofficial shrine to victims of the March 22, terror attacks.

© AFP 2023 / Patrik Stollarz

As of 2017, some 19,000 people were on the police list of individuals suspected of ties to terrorists, which is 10 times more than in 2010, the RTL broadcaster reported citing the Federal Public Service Interior.