🔗 Share this article Alleged Plot to Strike Belgian Premier Prevented Belgium's law enforcement have detained three individuals allegedly involved in plotting an assault on the country's premier, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities described the reported plot as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the premier and other politicians. During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, near the PM's private residence, officials found a alleged improvised explosive device and evidence that the accused were intending to employ a drone. While the intended targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was among them. "Information of a intended attack directed toward PM Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister stated in a message on online platforms on Thursday. "This underscores that we are confronting a very real terrorism risk and that we have to remain vigilant," he continued. The three individuals detained on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a jihadist network all live in Antwerp, according to the legal authorities. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007. On late Thursday, one of the individuals was freed, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and scheduled to appear in court on the following day. Federal prosecutors said that the individuals were arrested after a court official directed raids of their homes in the city by police officers backed by explosive sniffer dogs. Throughout these raids that they located a item which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a media briefing on Thursday. Raids also found a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added. Fransen disclosed that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in Belgium in the current year - surpassing the full amount of instances in last year. During the spring, five people were sentenced for a 2023 plot to strike the prime minister while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.