🔗 Share this article Suspected Plan to Strike Belgian PM Prevented Belgium's authorities have arrested three individuals allegedly involved in plotting an assault on the nation's premier, Bart de Wever. Legal authorities characterized the reported scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and other politicians. During searches conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the PM's personal dwelling, officials discovered a potential IED and evidence that the individuals were planning to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle. While the intended targets of the attack were not disclosed by name by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot revealed that de Wever was included in the targets. "Information of a intended attack directed toward Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the official wrote in a update on X on the day of the arrests. "It emphasizes that we are facing a serious terrorist threat and that we have to remain vigilant," he concluded. The three suspects arrested on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and involvement in the functions of a extremist organization all are based in Antwerp, according to the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s. By late Thursday, one person was let go, while the remaining two were under interrogation and expected to be presented before a court on the next day. Legal authorities stated that the accused were taken into custody after a court official authorized raids of their dwellings in the city by law enforcement supported by explosive sniffer dogs. Throughout these investigations that they found a object which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", lead prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a news conference on the day of the events. Investigations also found a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she noted. Fransen said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in Belgium this year - more than the total number of instances in the previous year. During the spring, five individuals were sentenced for a scheme last year to strike Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of the mayor of Antwerp.