🔗 Share this article Reported Scheme to Target Belgian Premier Foiled Belgium's police have taken into custody three people allegedly involved in plotting an attack on the nation's premier, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities characterized the suspected plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the PM and fellow government officials. During raids conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the prime minister's personal dwelling, investigators discovered a alleged IED and indications that the individuals were planning to use a drone. While the planned victims of the assault were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was included in the targets. "The news of a premeditated assault directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot declared in a message on X on Thursday. "This underscores that we are confronting a very real extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he continued. The three suspects arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and engagement in the activities of a extremist organization all reside in the city of Antwerp, per the federal prosecutors. They were born in 2001, 2002 and 2007. On late Thursday, one person was let go, while the other suspects were undergoing questioning and expected to face a judge on the following day. The prosecution stated that the individuals were taken into custody after a judge ordered searches of their homes in the location by police officers assisted by explosive sniffer dogs. It was during these investigations that they discovered a item which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a press conference on that day. Investigations also uncovered a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she added. The official said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases initiated in the country so far this year - more than the overall count of investigations in 2024. Earlier this year, five individuals were convicted for a previous year's plan to strike Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of the mayor of Antwerp.