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Brussels New Year's Eve fireworks cancelled due terror attack fears after two arrests in Belgium; security tightened globally
Updated
RELATED STORY: Turkey detains two IS suspects over New Year suicide attack plot
Authorities in the Belgian capital Brussels have called off the city's traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display because of fears of a terror attack, while security has been tightened worldwide for the countdown into 2016.
Key points:
· Fireworks cancelled as six people arrested over NYE attack plot in Brussels
· Belgium capital at heart of investigations into Paris terror attacks
· Two suspected Islamic State operatives detained in Turkey over NYE plot
· Security tightened globally ahead of 2016 celebrations
The move comes as federal prosecutors said during searches in different parts of the country, they had arrested six people suspected of plotting a New Year's Eve attack in Brussels.
A total of eight people are now being held in the case, including two men who have been formally charged with terrorism-related offences following their arrests earlier this week, the federal prosecutor's office said.
Last year, some 100,000 people turned out to watch the traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display at the Place de Brouckere.
"Unfortunately we have been forced to cancel the fireworks and all that was planned for tomorrow evening, that would have brought a lot of people together in the centre of Brussels, following a risk analysis by the crisis centre," Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said.
He said in the current circumstances it wasn't possible to "guarantee that we can check everyone coming to the event".
"It's better not to take any risks," Mr Mayeur said.
The six new suspects were detained following seven police raids in and around the Belgian capital in which computer equipment, mobile phones and "airsoft material" were seized, it added. Airsoft is a type of airgun.
An investigating judge will decide later on Thursday whether to keep the six in custody or release them, the prosecutor's office added.
Belgium has been at the heart of investigations into the coordinated terror attacks in Paris on November 13 that left 130 people dead.
Two of the Paris suicide bombers, Brahim Abdeslam and Bilal Hadfi, had been living in Belgium.
And a key suspect in the Paris attacks, Belgian-born fugitive Salah Abdeslam, is believed to have fled to Brussels in the hours after the massacre, which was claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
Belgian authorities have so far detained nine men in the case including four accused of helping Abdeslam get away from the crime scenes.
Brussels last cancelled its New Year fireworks in 2007, when it was also on high alert after a plan was foiled to free Tunisian Nizar Trabelsi, convicted of plotting to blow up a military base.
Security tightened for New Year's Eve worldwide
In Turkey, meanwhile, officials said two Islamic State suspects were planning to stage suicide bombings in the centre of capital Ankara, which is expected to be packed with revellers on the night of December 31.
Turkey has been on a high security alert since October, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of peace activists in Ankara, killing 103 people in the worst attack in the country's modern history.
According to NTV television, counter-terrorism police arrested the pair in the Mamak district on the outskirts of the capital, which is home to more than 5 million people.
"They are suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State and were planning an attack on the New Year in Ankara," a Turkish official said on condition of anonymity.
The alleged plot comes after a clampdown by police on suspected Islamists, including this month's arrest of an alleged member of the IS group suspected of planning a suicide attack on the US consulate in Istanbul.
In Turkey's biggest city Istanbul, 15,000 police will be deployed to ensure security over the New Year, the city's deputy police security chief Zafer Baybaba said.
In New York City, where 1 million people pack into Times Square every year, officials said that 6,000 officers, some plainclothes, would be on hand to watch over celebrations.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday said the security measures this year would be "more extensive than ever" and include more than 500 police trained in preventing terror attacks.
"We'll have a huge number of police out on New Year's Eve, including a lot of our new anti-terror force, the Critical Response Command," he said.
In Muslim majority Somalia, often targeted by Islamists, the Government has banned celebrations of Christmas and New Year for fear of attacks.
In Germany, which has welcomed 1 million refugees this year, many shelters have also banned firecrackers and pyrotechnics to protect asylum seekers from reliving the trauma of wars they fled.
AFP/Reuters
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