đŸ”— Share this article Alleged Scheme to Target Belgian PM Foiled Belgian police have taken into custody three people suspected of conspiring to carry out an assault on the nation's prime minister, Bart de Wever. Prosecutors labeled the reported plan as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives. During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the prime minister's personal dwelling, investigators uncovered a suspected improvised explosive device and evidence that the individuals were intending to employ a drone. While the intended targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was included in the targets. "Information of a intended attack targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister stated in a post on X on Thursday. "It highlights that we are facing a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he continued. The three people taken into custody on suspicion of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the activities of a jihadist network all are based in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in the early 2000s. On late Thursday, one suspect was freed, while the remaining two were still being questioned and scheduled to face a judge on the next day. Legal authorities stated that the individuals were detained after a magistrate ordered inspections of their residences in the location by police officers backed by explosive sniffer dogs. It was during these raids that they located a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a media briefing on Thursday. Raids also revealed a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she continued. The official disclosed that there had been 80 terrorism investigations opened in the nation in the current year - exceeding the total number of cases in last year. During the spring, five individuals were sentenced for a previous year's plan to attack De Wever while he was serving as the mayor of Antwerp.