Suspected Plan to Strike Belgian PM Foiled

Belgium's police have detained three suspects allegedly involved in plotting an strike on the government's prime minister, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities described the suspected plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the premier and other politicians.

During investigations conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, in proximity to the prime minister's home, officials uncovered a suspected improvised explosive device and proof that the accused were planning to employ a drone.

While the planned victims of the assault were not officially named by the prosecutor's office, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was included in the targets.

"The news of a planned attack directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the official wrote in a post on online platforms on Thursday.

"It emphasizes that we are confronting a very real terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.

The three suspects detained on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and participation in the activities of a extremist organization all reside in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

On late Thursday, one person was freed, while two others were still being questioned and likely to face a judge on the next day.

Legal authorities revealed that the suspects were taken into custody after a court official ordered searches of their homes in the urban area by law enforcement supported by explosives-trained dogs.

In the course of these raids that they found a device which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a news conference on Thursday.

Investigations also found a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she continued.

Fransen said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases initiated in the country in the current year - more than the overall count of cases in the previous year.

During the spring, five suspects were found guilty for a scheme last year to strike the prime minister while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.