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Twin explosions at the airport and another at a metro station on Tuesday left about 34 dead and 250 wounded. Why has Brussels been attacked? Brussels is home to the EU, Nato, international agencies and companies, as well as Belgium’s own government. Not only is Brussels a high-profile target for Islamists, Belgium has struggled with Islamist groups for years and hundreds of its citizens have been lured into fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq.

Belgium is observing three days of national mourning. So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the attacks and warned that more would follow. A minute’s silence for the victims will be held at midday (11:00 GMT).

RTBF (Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française, Brussels’ public broadcaster) said the brothers were known to police and had criminal records. The broadcaster said that Khalid el-Bakraoui had used a false name to rent the flat in the Forest area of the Belgian capital where police killed a gunman in a shootout last week.

It was during that raid that police found a fingerprint of Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the Paris terror attacks of 13 November. He was arrested in a raid in Brussels last Friday and is due to appear before a pre-trial court on Wednesday.
It is not known if both of the brothers are in the CCTV image handed out by police of the three men at the airport.

The three men were seen pushing trolleys carrying suspected bombs at Zaventem airport just before the blasts at a check-in hall. They were believed to have died in the attack. Zaventem airport remains closed under tight security

The airport explosions happened in quick succession shortly after 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT), killing about 14 people. A third bomb was found and destroyed in a controlled detonation. About an hour later another explosion ripped through a train at the Maelbeek metro station in the Belgian capital, killing about 20 people.