Following Tuesday morning's terrorist attacks in Brussels airport and Malbeek Metro station in Brussels city centre, the Luxembourg government has announced that flags flown on public buildings will be flown at half-mast for three days from 18:00 on Tuesday evening.
The action was announced in mourning and solidarity with the victims and the Belgian nation.
The Government has invited local authorities throughout the Grand Duchy to do the same.
Earlier in the afternoon, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Minister of State, Xavier Bettel, chaired a meeting of government ministers. They had been briefed by the GCT, the co-ordination group in the fight against terrorism, which had convened earlier to assess the terrorist threat to the Grand Duchy. In light of information currently available, the GCT believes that they do not show tangible links between the bombings in Brussels and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and have no reports or information relating to suspicious actions on the national territory. As a result, the securits level 2 is maintained as decided in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.
According to the VIGILNAT plan, level 2 is triggered when it appears that the terrorist threat is real but abstract. It is to increase vigilance against a vague threat and leads the implementation of vigilance, prevention and variable intensity and temporary protection. According to the VIGILNAT plan, the transition to alert level 3 presupposes that a terrorist threat is real and credible in the Grand Duchy. According to current information, there is no indication that such is the case in Luxembourg.
Given the exceptionally serious nature of the attacks in Brussels, the government decided on the establishment and / or maintenance of various security measures, including strengthening securuity measures at the airport and city train station, as well as border controls with Belgium.
