Brussels on alert after terror raids

A day after coordinated police raids across Belgium netted more than a dozen suspects and a cache of military-style weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles, the security situation in the Belgian capital was surprisingly relaxed.

Aside from the occasional helicopter patrol over the city center, the streets, for the most part, were clear of any obvious police presence. Outside the European Commission building, people were asked to show ID before entering, but the police presence was minimal and not much different from any other day.

"The alert level isn't even at red," scoffed a journalist before entering, passing a large group of schoolchildren posing for a photo. The alert level was at its second-highest, at the Commission and in Belgium in general.

A spokesperson for the European Commission told the press on Friday that the European institutions had increased their alert level as a precaution, though they were not aware of any specific threat against them.

"We have introduced supplementary security measures, including increased access controls," said the spokesperson. "The presence of security guards has also been reinforced."

Jewish schools, institutions closed

On Thursday evening, police launched coordinated raids in several locations across the country, including numerous districts in Brussels. Thirteen people were arrested and two suspects were killed in the eastern city of Verviers, discovered in a suspected terrorist hideout. The suspects, many of them Belgian citizens, were said to have ties to Syria and, according to officials, were just hours away from executing targeted attacks on police.

One of the raids took place in the central district of Schaerbeek, home to a large Turkish and Moroccan population and which borders on the European quarter. Daniele, a Schaerbeek resident, told DW how she was kept awake by sirens and circling helicopters until late in the evening. In this neighborhood, she said, "you get used to it." But, she added she didn't necessarily feel any less safe the day after the raids.

Jewish institutions across Belgium remained on high alert Friday. Many schools in Antwerp and Brussels were closed for the day, confirmed Maurice Sosnowski, president of the Coordination Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium.

In the district of Saint-Gilles, near the Gare du Midi main international railway station, increased police protection was in place at a Jewish community center, with two officers keeping a watchful eye on passers-by. The center has been under routine police protection since last May's shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, which left four dead.

No apparent link to Paris attacks

Increased security has also been visible on the Brussels public transport system in recent days, with armed police in bulletproof vests patrolling the metro near the European government district on Thursday evening.

Late Thursday afternoon, police arrested a drunk, armed man shouting "Allahu akbar" in a metro station north of the city center. However, by Friday morning the system was running normally, with no restrictions in place.

The raids come in the wake of last week's terror attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, although the authorities have said there were no apparent links between the two.

On Wednesday, just as the most recent edition of Charlie Hebdo was due to hit newsstands in Brussels, featuring a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on its cover, four bookshops in the city received anonymous letters praising Allah and warning of "reprisals" should they sell the magazine.