Officials: Group That Hit Brussels Planned 2nd France Attack

The attackers who struck Brussels on March 22 initially planned to launch a second assault on France, Belgium’s Federal Prosecution Office said Sunday.

In this Belgian Federal Police hand out picture made available April 7, 2016 the third suspect, of the recent attack on Brussels airport is shown, indicated in box, during his escape from the airport after the blasts. After nearly three weeks of frantic searching, Belgian authorities announced Saturday they had finally arrested and identified the elusive "man in the hat" spotted alongside two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport on March 22. Belgian Federal Police via AP

PARIS—The extremists who struck Brussels last month and killed 32 people initially planned to launch a second assault on France in the wake of the November attacks in Paris, authorities said Sunday.

But the perpetrators were “surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation” and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead of going back to France, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. It didn’t provide any details on the initial French plot or its targets.

Both France and Belgium warned it was no time to relax despite the recent spate of arrests.

“It’s fresh proof of the very real threat that weighs on all of Europe, and on France in particular,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.

There are perhaps other cells that are still active on our territory.

— Jan Jambon, interior minister, Belgium