🔗 Share this article Reported Plan to Strike Belgian Prime Minister Thwarted Belgium's police have taken into custody three suspects allegedly involved in plotting an strike on the nation's premier, Bart de Wever. Prosecutors characterized the reported plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and additional government officials. During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the prime minister's private residence, officials uncovered a potential IED and indications that the individuals were intending to deploy a unmanned aerial vehicle. While the planned victims of the strike were not officially named by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot stated that de Wever was among them. "The news of a intended strike directed toward PM Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on X on Thursday. "This underscores that we are facing a serious terrorist threat and that we have to remain vigilant," he added. The three suspects arrested on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the activities of a terrorist group all reside in the Antwerp region, per the legal authorities. They were born in 2001, 2002 and 2007. On Thursday evening, one of the individuals was released, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and scheduled to be presented before a court on the following day. Legal authorities revealed that the suspects were arrested after a court official authorized searches of their residences in the city by officials backed by bomb detection canines. Throughout these investigations that they found a device which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen said at a news conference on the day of the events. Raids also found a "bag of steel balls" and a 3D printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added. Fransen said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the nation this year - surpassing the overall count of instances in last year. Earlier this year, five people were found guilty for a previous year's plan to target Belgium's leader while he was serving as the mayor of Antwerp.