🔗 Share this article Reported Plot to Attack Belgian Premier Thwarted Belgian authorities have detained three people allegedly involved in planning an attack on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities described the suspected plot as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the premier and fellow elected representatives. During investigations conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, in proximity to the premier's private residence, investigators uncovered a suspected improvised explosive device and indications that the individuals were planning to use a UAV. While the prospective targets of the strike were not officially named by the prosecutor's office, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot revealed that Belgium's leader was among them. "Information of a planned attack targeting PM Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister wrote in a post on online platforms on the investigation day. "It emphasizes that we are confronting a very real extremist danger and that we have to stay alert," he added. The three suspects arrested on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a jihadist network all live in Antwerp, according to the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007. By the evening of the arrests, one suspect was let go, while the other suspects were still being questioned and likely to face a judge on the following day. Legal authorities said that the individuals were taken into custody after a judge directed searches of their dwellings in the urban area by officials supported by explosive sniffer dogs. In the course of these raids that they found a device which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen stated at a media briefing on the day of the events. Searches also uncovered a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she continued. The prosecutor said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the country in the current year - surpassing the full amount of instances in last year. Earlier this year, five people were sentenced for a 2023 plot to attack the prime minister while he was serving as the city's chief executive.