Brussels Remains on High Alert Amid Fears of Attack

BELGIUM-ATTACKS-ALERT
People stand at the Grand Place in Brussels on November 21, 2015. All metro train stations in Brussels will be closed today, the city's public transport network said after Belgium raised the capital's terror alert to the highest level, warning of an "imminent threat". As Europe tightens security a week on from the jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, Belgium's OCAM national crisis centre raised its alert level to 4 early on November 21, "signifying a very serious threat for the Brussels region". AFP PHOTO/JOHN THYS (Photo credit should read JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty Images)
JOHN THYS AFP/Getty Images

Belgium will keep the highest threat level for Brussels on Monday, with the metro as well as schools remaining closed because of a “serious and imminent” threat of coordinated, multiple attacks, the country’s prime minister said.

For the rest of the country, a threat level of three on a four tier scale would remain in place, prime minister Charles Michel said.

“What we fear is an attack similar to the one in Paris, with several individuals who could also possibly launch several attacks at the same time in multiple locations,” Michel told a press conference in Brussels.

Possible targets were malls, shops and public transport, Michel said, adding the government would boost police and army presence in the capital.

Belgium has been at the heart of investigations into the Paris attacks after links to Brussels, and the poor district of Molenbeek in particular, emerged.

Fugitive suspected militant Salah Abdeslam, 26, slipped back home to Brussels from Paris shortly after the attacks, in which his elder brother Brahim blew himself up at a cafe.

Fears of the risks he still poses prompted the cancellation last week of an international friendly soccer match in Brussels against Spain.