Brussels’ Maelbeek Metro Station Reopens After Terrorist Attacks
KABUL: (MEP) Brussels’ Maelbeek metro station, which was hit by one of the Islamic State group suicide bombings a month ago that killed 32 people, will reopen on Monday, transport officials said.
The Belgian parliament’s commission of inquiry into the attacks Friday visited both Maelbeek station, near the EU’s headquarters, and Brussels Airport as part of its mission to shed light on both attacks by the end of the year.
Maelbeek station has been closed since Khalid El-Bakraoui detonated a bomb at 9:11 am on March 22 that killed 16 people on a train, part of coordinated attacks that hit the airport in Zaventem neighbourhood just over an hour earlier.
Maelbeek will resume service Monday from 6am until 10pm, like the rest of the network, the Brussels public transport service spokeswoman Françoise Ledune told AFP on Friday.
Reconstruction work was completed Friday evening, Ledune added.
An Van Hamme, a spokeswoman for the Brussels metro system, told FRANCE 24 that damage in the Maelbeek station had been limited to its artwork. One of the station’s eight tiled portraits by artist Benoît van Innis remains damaged and is currently being covered by a remembrance wall, “where people can leave messages, words of hope”, another metro spokeswoman told AFP.
“We know that psychologically for [passengers] it will be very difficult to pass by this station,” Van Hamme said.
The artist Van Innis is now working on a project to commemorate the massacre that is due to be completed in June, Ledune said.
Trains have also resumed service to Brussels airport, which the authorities had halted because it led to the damaged terminal.
Brussels airport is set to resume full operations in June after it was completely closed to passengers for 12 days following the attack and then began gradually to restore service.
The airport bombings were carried out by Khalid’s brother Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui – the alleged bombmaker for the November 13 Paris attacks.
Police earlier this month arrested Mohamed Abrini, who confessed to being the “man in the hat” caught on video with the two airport bombers and who allegedly was preparing to detonate a third bomb before fleeing the scene.
The authorities have also arrested Swedish national Osama Krayem and charged him in connection with both the Brussels and Paris attacks.
He was filmed on CCTV talking to Khalid El Bakraoui minutes before the bomb went off.
“Many people are now asking why metro Maelbeek remained open that morning after two bombers blew themselves up at Zaventem (airport),” said Méabh McMahon, reporting from Brussels for FRANCE 24.
The parliamentary inquiry will try to find out if “the crisis centre could have reacted earlier and had that metro line closed”, among other questions that remain to be answered about the attacks, McMahon said.
When asked by FRANCE 24 what time she found out about the bombing in Zaventem airport on the morning of the Brussels attack, Van Hamme said, “The Parliamentary council will examine everything in detail regarding that.”
