Terror threat forces cancellation of Belgium’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display

Police said that they have been taking heightened security measures; however, Austrian authorities did not cancel planned celebrations. The prosecutor’s office said the men had staked out possible locations in Ankara where they could carry out the attacks. They were detained during police raids carried out in Brussels and in the Liege region since last weekend.

“Alternatively you can see in the New Year at one of the hundreds of other celebrations taking place in restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs across the capital”. The arrest of two suspects was announced Tuesday by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, along with the seizure of military-style training uniforms, computer equipment and propaganda materials from the Islamic State.

The police station was near Molenbeek, where anti-terror raids had been taking place.

Because the investigation is in its early stages, a possible connection between suspects and ISIS can not be excluded, André Vandoren, the head of Belgium’s coordinating body for threat analysis, told CNN on Wednesday.

“In these circumstances, we can’t check everyone”, Mr Mayeur said.

Fireworks are not a traditional part of the celebrations, but they were part of a New Year frenzy a year ago on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, the capital’s most famous thoroughfare.

Prosecutors said the arrests were not linked to November’s deadly Paris terrorist attacks, which authorities say involved a number of militants who had been living in Belgium. The announcement came on Wednesday, just one day before the two members of a motorcycle gang who were arrested for plotting an attack in Brussels were scheduled to appear in court. “All these people have been working closely together for weeks now, often doing long hours”, a Brussels police commissioner says.

In Paris, where 130 people were killed by Islamists on November 13, the annual fireworks display on the Champs-Elysees has been called off and 11,000 police, soldiers and firefighters will patrol the French capital.

Projections on the Arc de Triomphe will be shorter than normal, four giant screens will be placed at intervals to avoid creating tightly packed crowds and the fireworks display has been cancelled. Turkey has blamed IS, but no group has claimed the attack.