đŸ”— Share this article Alleged Plot to Attack Belgian Prime Minister Foiled Belgium's police have detained three people allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an attack on the nation's prime minister, Bart de Wever. Prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the prime minister and other elected representatives. During raids conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, near the prime minister's personal dwelling, investigators uncovered a suspected IED and evidence that the accused were intending to use a UAV. While the planned victims of the strike were not publicly identified by the prosecutor's office, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot revealed that the prime minister was one of them. "The news of a planned attack targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," the official declared in a post on online platforms on Thursday. "It highlights that we are dealing with a serious terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he added. The three suspects taken into custody on suspicion of terrorism-related attempted murder and engagement in the operations of a terrorist group all reside in the city of Antwerp, according to the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007. As of the evening of the arrests, one suspect was freed, while the other suspects were still being questioned and scheduled to be presented before a court on Friday. Legal authorities stated that the individuals were detained after a magistrate directed inspections of their residences in the location by officials backed by explosives-trained dogs. It was during these investigations that they found a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, lead prosecutor Ann Fransen announced at a media briefing on Thursday. Raids also uncovered a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added. The prosecutor said that there had been 80 terrorism investigations launched in the country this year - surpassing the total number of investigations in 2024. In April, five individuals were sentenced for a previous year's plan to attack De Wever while he was holding the position of the city's chief executive.