🔗 Share this article Suspected Plot to Target Belgian Premier Foiled Belgium's authorities have arrested three suspects suspected of conspiring to carry out an attack on the nation's premier, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities labeled the suspected scheme as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the PM and fellow politicians. During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the prime minister's home, officials discovered a alleged IED and proof that the suspects were intending to employ a UAV. While the intended targets of the strike were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot confirmed that Belgium's leader was among them. "Reports of a intended strike aimed at Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister wrote in a update on social media on Thursday. "This underscores that we are dealing with a genuine terrorist threat and that we have to stay alert," he continued. The three individuals taken into custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the operations of a terrorist group all live in Antwerp, per the legal authorities. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007. By the evening of the arrests, one person was released, while two others were under interrogation and expected to face a judge on Friday. The prosecution said that the suspects were arrested after a magistrate directed searches of their dwellings in the location by police officers supported by bomb detection canines. Throughout these investigations that they found a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", lead prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a media briefing on Thursday. Investigations also found a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she noted. The prosecutor said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations initiated in Belgium so far this year - surpassing the full amount of investigations in the previous year. In April, five suspects were sentenced for a 2023 plot to attack the prime minister while he was holding the position of the mayor of Antwerp.