Brussels security alert as driver says carrying explosives

A member of the DOVO - SEDEE, bomb disposal inspects a suspect car with a German number plate following a high-speed chase between police and a car who did not stop at a red light in the Molenbeek area of Brussels on Tuesday. (AFP / Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck)

BRUSSELS: Belgian police set up a security cordon in a suburb of Brussels Tuesday after arresting a man who said the car he was driving contained explosive material, prosecutors said.
Around 400 people were being confined inside the cordon in Molenbeek while police inspect the vehicle in question.
The driver ran at least one red light, leading to a police chase that resulted in the vehicle colliding with other cars. Police shot at the car, prosecutors said.
After being stopped, the driver “immediately declared he had explosives in the vehicle,” a spokesman for the Brussels prosecution service told AFP.
Belgium has been on high alert following a double bombing on its metro and airport that killed 32 people and wounded more than 140 in March 2016.
That attack was claimed by the Daesh group, as were the November 2015 attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.
Several of those responsible for the Paris attacks came from Molenbeek, home to a large Moroccan immigrant community, and had hidden there after the carnage before finally being tracked down by the police.