BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian media are reporting that explosion-like noises have been heard at a Brussels train station, prompting the evacuation of a main square. Brussels Police tweeted that the “incident with an individual at the Brussels Central station is under control.”

Broadcaster RTL quoted Fires Services spokesman Pierre Meys confirming that some kind of an explosion had happened in the city’s Central station on Tuesday. Meys could not say what had caused the blast.

He could only confirm that firefighters were at the scene.

The Belgian capital’s Grand Place, a major tourist site, was evacuated along with the station about 200 meters (656 feet) away.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and at an airport on March 22, 2016.

Keep checking NBC4i.com for real-time updates on this story. To get alerts for breaking news, grab the free NBC4 News App for iPhone or Android. You can also sign up for email alerts.</s>BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian media are reporting that explosion-like noises have been heard at a Brussels train station, prompting the evacuation of a main square.

Broadcaster RTL quoted Fires Services spokesman Pierre Meys confirming that some kind of an explosion had happened in the city’s Central station on Tuesday. Meys could not say what had caused the blast.

He could only confirm that firefighters were at the scene.

The Belgian capital’s Grand Place, a major tourist site, was evacuated along with the station about 200 meters (656 feet) away.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and at an airport on March 22, 2016.</s>Soldiers shot a suspect after a small explosion at the central Brussels train station Tuesday night, a spokeswoman for the city prosecutor's office said.

It appeared no one else was injured and the damage was limited, Ine Van Wymersch told VRT network. It was not clear if the suspect survived.

National newspaper La Libre Belgique quoted the Brussels prosecutor's office as saying the suspect was wearing a backpack and an explosive belt. Photos posted on social media showed a small fire in the station.

Brussels police said via Twitter that there was "an incident with an individual at the station. The situation is under control."

They asked the public to follow police instructions.

The station is one of the busiest in the nation and soldiers could be seen patrolling there after the explosion. It was evacuated along with the Belgian capital's Grand Place, a major tourist site about 200 meters (656 feet) away.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and at an airport in March 2016.

1:27 p.m. This article was updated with spokeswoman saying a suspect was shot.

1:15 p.m. This article was updated with Brussels police saying the situation is under control.

This article was originally published at 12:45 p.m.</s>A suspect was shot by soldiers after a small explosion at the central Brussels train station.

It’s unclear is the suspect survived, but no one else was hurt in the explosion.

According to the Brussels prosecutor’s office, the suspect was wearing a backpack and an explosive belt.

The damage from the explosion was limited.

Brussels police tweeted that there was "an incident with an individual at the station. The situation is under control. “

Grand Place, a major tourist site in Belgian’s capital, was evacuated, along with station.</s>BRUSSELS (AP) — Soldiers shot a suspect in the heart of Brussels after a small explosion Tuesday night at a busy train station continued a week of extremist attacks in the capitals of Europe.

A bomb squad performed a controlled explosion of a bomb belt the suspect had at the Central Station and was checking to see if there more hazards, VTM network reported. Authorities set up a wide perimeter around the station, located near the city’s famed Grand Place square.

It appeared no one else was injured besides the suspect and the damage from the explosion was limited, Brussels prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Ine Van Wymersch told VRT. It was not clear if the suspect survived.

National newspaper La Libre Belgique quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying the suspect was wearing a backpack and an explosive belt. The information could not be immediately confirmed. Photos posted on social media showed a small fire in the station.

Brussels police said via Twitter that there was “an incident with an individual at the station. The situation is under control.” They asked the public to follow police instructions.

The Central Station is one of the busiest in the nation and soldiers could be seen patrolling there after the explosion. It was evacuated along with the Belgian capital’s Grand Place, a major tourist site about 200 meters (656 feet) away.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and at an airport in March 2016.

There have been incidents involving extremists in Paris and London in recent days, including the attack by a van driver who tried to run down worshippers outside a London mosque.</s>Belgian media are reporting that explosion-like noises have been heard at a Brussels train station, prompting the evacuation of a main square.</s>Belgian troops shot a suspected suicide bomber in Brussels Central Station on Tuesday but there were no other casualties and the situation was brought under control after people were evacuated, officials said.

BRUSSELS: Belgian troops shot dead a suspected suicide bomber in Brussels' central train station on Tuesday but there were no other casualties, in what authorities were treating as the latest terrorist incident in Europe.

The man set off a small explosion at the city's Central Station, prosecutors said, and was then shot by one of the routine military patrols active in Brussels since attacks more than a year ago. They declined comment on witness accounts that the man had shouted Islamist slogans first.

Only hours later, after bomb disposal teams had cleared the area, was the man confirmed dead. There was no word on his identity.

"We consider this a terrorist attack," prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt told reporters by the nearby Grand Place. Police had cleared streets around Brussels' landmark Renaissance town square after the blast, which occurred around 8:30 p.m. (1930 BST) as tourists and locals were enjoying a hot summer's night.

The Belgian capital, home to the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, has been on high alert since a Brussels-based Islamic State cell organised the attack that killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015. Four months later, associates of those attackers killed 32 people in their home city.

Since then, attacks in France, but also in Germany, Sweden and, most recently, in Britain, have been carried out in the name of the Syria-based Islamist group by other young men, many of them locals, raising fears of more violence in Brussels, where almost a quarter of its population of 1.2 million are Muslim.

Witnesses spoke of a man who shouted Islamist slogans, including "Allahu akbar" - God is greater - in Arabic, in an underground area of the station still busy with commuters making their way home and seemed to set off one or two small blasts that filled parts of the building with smoke.

Security experts said Tuesday's incident could have been similar to "lone wolf" assaults carried out by radicalised individuals with limited access to weapons and training.

"Such isolated acts will continue in Brussels, in Paris and elsewhere. It's inevitable," Brussels security consultant Claude Moniquet, a former French agent, told broadcaster RTL.

With Islamic State under pressure in Syria - where Belgium has been the most fertile European recruiting ground for foreign Islamist fighters - he said attacks in Europe could increase, though many of these would be by "amateurs" doing little harm.

He compared Tuesday's incident to that on Paris' Champs-Elysees avenue a day earlier, when a man was killed when he rammed his car, filled with explosive and weapons, into a French police convoy. No one else was injured.

Nicolas Van Herrewegen, an employee at the Brussels Central Station, told Reuters that he was heading downstairs toward the underground platforms of the compact, 1930s station, which serves long-distance and suburban lines running under the city centre.

"There was a man shouting, and shouting and shouting," he said. "He was talking about the jihadists and all that and then at some point he shouted 'Allahu akbar' and blew up the little suitcase he had next to him. People just took off."

He described the man as quite dark and with short hair and said he was wearing a white shirt and black jeans.

Remy Bonaffe, a 23-year-old lawyer who was waiting on the concourse for a train home to Ghent, said he was startled by an explosion as he listened to music on his headphones. He took a photograph of flames shooting up from what he thought was a briefcase. There was a second blast further away, which he could not see, followed by what sounded like gunfire, prompting him to run.

"I think we had some luck tonight," he told Reuters. "I'm happy that no one was injured and that this was basically a failed attempt." People just feet from the explosion appeared unhurt and he said he saw no obvious damage to the walls around.

As Prime Minister Charles Michel consulted with his security advisers, the national alert was maintained at its second highest level. Michel, who convened a National Security Council meeting for early Wednesday, tweeted his thanks to the security forces and railway staff for their professionalism and courage.</s>BRUSSELS (AP) — Soldiers shot a suspect in the heart of Brussels after a small explosion Tuesday night at a busy train station continued a week of extremist attacks in the capitals of Europe.

A bomb squad performed a controlled explosion of a bomb belt the suspect had at the Central Station and was checking to see if there more hazards, VTM network reported. Authorities set up a wide perimeter around the station, located near the city’s famed Grand Place square.

It appeared no one else was injured besides the suspect and the damage from the explosion was limited, Brussels prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Ine Van Wymersch told VRT. It was not clear if the suspect survived.

National newspaper La Libre Belgique quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying the suspect was wearing a backpack and an explosive belt. The information could not be immediately confirmed. Photos posted on social media showed a small fire in the station.

Brussels police said via Twitter that there was “an incident with an individual at the station. The situation is under control.” They asked the public to follow police instructions.

The Central Station is one of the busiest in the nation and soldiers could be seen patrolling there after the explosion. It was evacuated along with the Belgian capital’s Grand Place, a major tourist site about 200 meters (656 feet) away.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and at an airport in March 2016.

There have been incidents involving extremists in Paris and London in recent days, including the attack by a van driver who tried to run down worshippers outside a London mosque.</s>BRUSSELS: Belgian troops patrolling Brussels Central Station "neutralised" a person after a small explosion on Tuesday (Jun 20), a police spokesman said, adding that there were no other casualties and the situation was under control.

He could not confirm media reports that the person had been wearing an explosive vest and it was not clear whether the person shot was still alive.

The station and the adjacent historic downtown area, packed with tourists and locals on a hot summer evening, was partly evacuated as police set up a security cordon, witnesses told Belgian media.

The city has been on high alert for more than 18 months since Brussels-based Islamic State militants carried out attacks in Paris that killed 130 people there in November 2015 and later bombed Brussels airport and the city's metro in March last year.

The police spokesman said: "There was an accident at Central Station. There was an explosion around a person. That person was neutralized by the soldiers that were on the scene.

"At the moment, the police are in numbers at the station and everything is under control."</s>BRUSSELS (AP) - Police say the situation is now under control after Belgian media reported that explosion-like noises have been heard at a Brussels train station, prompting evacuations of the area.

Broadcaster RTL quoted Fires Services spokesman Pierre Meys confirming that some kind of an explosion had happened in the city's Central station on Tuesday. Meys could not say what had caused the blast.

He could only confirm that firefighters were at the scene.

Brussels police said via Twitter that there was "an incident with an individual at the station. The situation is under control."

They asked the public to follow police instructions.

The Belgian capital's Grand Place, a major tourist site, was evacuated along with the station about 200 meters (656 feet) away.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people on the Brussels subway and at an airport in March 2016.

This story is developing and will continue to be updated.
A man is shot in Brussels Central Station amid reports of an attempted bombing attack.