Brussels – Belgium’s Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, on Thursday, confirmed that one of the suicide bombers who died in the March 22 terrorist attacks on the Brussels airport had previously been an airport employee, a media report said.
The report added that Najim Laachraoui worked for five years at the airport until the end of 2012 under a temporary contract with a company active on the site.
“This would have allowed him to get informed about security at the airport,’’ Jambon said.
He told newsmen in Luxembourg, where he was attending a meeting of EU interior ministers that he had learned in the last days that Laachraoui had worked at the airport.
However, Jambon warned against drawing hasty conclusions, saying it was unclear when Laachraoui became radicalised.
He noted that “radicalisation can occur in very little time, he may have become radicalised while working at the airport or later on.”
The minister also noted that reinforced screening of workers at airports and other sensitive sites were among the measures launched by the government following the March attacks.
More than 30 people died in the suicide bombing at the airport and a subsequent one at an underground railway station in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Laachraoui was one of the two bombers who died at the airport.
The 24-year-old Belgian national left for Syria in 2013 and was also linked with the November terrorist attacks in Paris. (dpa/NAN)