Belgium Lowers Alert Level After Attacks

Belgium's terror watch status has been lowered from the highest to the second highest level, the country's authorities have confirmed.

It comes just two days after the suicide bomb attacks at Zaventem Airport and Maalbeek station in Brussels which have left 31 people dead and 270 injured.

Despite lowering the terror threat level from the maximum of four to three, the authorities say the situation remains "exceptional" and "grave" and that another attack is "likely and possible".

The head of the terror threat assessment authority, Paul Zan Pigchelt, said the imminent nature of the threat has lessened since the attacks on Tuesday.

However, he said that did not mean "the danger has not gone away."

At least one bombing suspect is believed to be on the run, while the men who committed the atrocities are known to have been linked to a wider terror network.

Two of the suicide bombers have been named as brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, and a third as Najim Laachraoui, who has been identified as the bomb maker in the Paris attacks.

All three were killed.

Meanwhile, the Dutch justice minister has confirmed one of the attackers was flown from Turkey to Amsterdam in July, but said authorities were not told why and had no reason to detain him.

In a letter to parliament, Ard van der Steur said Ibrahim El Bakraoui was put on a plane from at Istanbul on 14 July but Turkish officials did not say why.

Mr Van der Steur said El Bakraoui had a valid Belgian passport when he arrived in Amsterdam "so there was no reason to take any action" at Schiphol Airport.

It was not clear what El Bakraoui did after arriving in the Netherlands.

Mr Van der Steur's account appears to contradict the version of events given by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He said on Wednesday that El Bakraoui was caught in June 2015 near the border with Syria and deported, at his own request, to the Netherlands.

Mr Erdogan said Ankara warned Dutch and Belgian officials that he was a "foreign terrorist fighter."