Belgium raised the alert status for its capital, Brussels, to the highest level on Saturday, shutting the metro and warning the public to avoid crowds because of a "serious and imminent" threat of an attack.
A week after the Paris attacks carried out by Islamic State militants — one of whom is from Brussels and remained at large — the city was placed on the top level of four in the government's threat scale after a meeting of top ministers, police and security services.
"The advice for the population is to avoid places where a lot of people come together, like shopping centers, concerts, events or public transport stations, wherever possible," a spokesman for the government's crisis center said.