Be Excellent To Each Other

One maybe 2 devices set off in the check in area this morning, airport a mess (pictures on Twitter)

Also bombs in last 10 minutes at metro stations so all that is shut down now.

In Belgium now and was due at airport in 24 hours, bit scary when you think about it

Have a Euro Star booking for tomorrow confirmed, but not sure if that will be running now.

Did you have a shower this morning?

Yes! Staying over tonight which was always planned

Well, you're 11 times more likely to die having a shower than from a terrorist attack so dry your eyes, mate, up and at 'em. The faint of heart never won the fair lady 'n' all.

And on the Metro too.
Bunch of twats.

Some people have to get the Metro, man.

Initial reports are often confused and show little of truth of the matter, but they were saying that one bomb was set off in the airport itself, before security stuff, which is easy enough to do, but also one on the runway? That's a bit scarier.

They could buy bikes.

Awful news unfolding. Sorry to hear that it has happened whilst you are there, Asfish, as it might make you feel a bit nervous or edgy. I hope your plans aren't too affected, but more that you stay safe and well.

Motorbikes. But don't personally know DavPaz. That way lies injury.

2 bombs went off at baggage drop off\check in at the airport

1 bomb at a central Metro station

Everything is closed now, Metro, Eurostar, Airport.

Booked on Eurostar tomorrow @12.50 so hopefully that will be running again by then. Was planning to fly home tomorrow but the airport will be closed for some time I suspect.

Do you have travel insurance?

Yes for personal but this is work, I had a flight booked tomorrow which will be cancelled no question, so I used the work online travel portal to book a Eurostar ticket. If I need to stay longer then I will just extend my hotel etc

Will see what tomorrow brings, Plan B is Calais and the Ferry.

speculation is 4 metro stations, 1 confirmed
border belgium/france closed
metro/busses suspended
all Brussels trainstations closed
reports of Antwerp central station evacuation and closure

all tentative information of course this early

Must be eerie being there right now, asfish. I'd tell you to take care, but as MaliA says, more people die in showers so unless you're hiding in the bathroom and are Mel Gibson and the terrorists have planted a bomb on the bog, I think you're okay.

Usual rules apply, if work is called off and city goes into lockdown, find a pub. And maybe some waffles in this case.

Still, hell of a thing. I hope people got out of the Metro more or less unscathed, reports are still to come in from that one.

Always suspicious of any speculation within the first couple of hours of an attack. Though remember when London got hit all those years ago and it was widely reported that it was caused by power surges to keep the panic down and enable the services to work their stuff. So strange that we all sort of thought that was a likely explanation, but with that little voice saying, "Sounds more like a bomb," nagging away in the back of the head - as it clearly wasn't.

Stay safe asfish and stay in touch!

How do they close the border between Belgium and France? Not only must there be loads of roads that cross over, but there's huge fields and stuff that you could easily get across through - they can't guard it all.

I've often thought that about borders anyway. Interesting.

Trump has the answer: Giant walls!

Probably not, but you can make it very difficult to move equipment across in a car. I imagine the police in each border village and town will be alerted too. Plus borders naturally follow rivers, so that might cut down on crossing points too.

I had been hoping that the bomb in the Metro might just have fizzled. Doesn't look that way now.

Don't forget to make ISIS pay for it too!

It's funny how we laugh about this but....

The Maginot Line worked out well for France, after all.

And don't be using any of them migrant workers to do the actual building, now.

Obviously we need to look at getting Hadrian's wall re-built, higher.

Government here has closed down the mobile phone networks aside from texts

I'm a fair distance away from the centre in Waterloo but keep hearing sirens and a lot of helicopters flying around.

Also some early reports that the wife of one of the local workers from my company was affected by the attacks

There are no borders as such to close, I've driven to France from here a few times and its just like driving in the country and all of a sudden you see a small sign saying you are in France. I guess if they want to do this they will block off roads etc

I have no idea, the road we always take is a motorway where we whizz along at 130 km/h and look for the blue sign that says we crossed now. Absolutely no kind of slow/stop/barrier kind of thing in place

Slave-owning imperialist Hadrian must fall.

Yeah, that's what I mean. When Jem and I went to Belgium via France at the end of last year I was surprised at how there wasn't any sort of border control.

I once swam from Luxembourg to Germany. Admittedly, it was quite a small river.

Straying briefly into politics, the Schengen area and the lack of border posts is one, rightly, of the great achievements of the EU, and it'd be a shame to see permanent controls go back up.

It's part of Shengen . The border controls on the outside of the area.

God-damn Reivers!

Both my BA and BCD (travel agent app) are somewhat behind current events, both are asking me to check in for my flight tomorrow!

Are you still at work Ashfish?

As for Waterloo, I once misread a menu and ordered an 80 euro bottle of wine in a small bistro there. Very nice, but I think I could have enjoyed the evening for a quarter of that cost. The cheap B&B I'd booked there was above a stable so the room smelt of horse.

As for the field itself, if you didn't know much history you'd think Napoleon won the battle from all the statues to him there.

I'm assuming my dad (lives in Belgium) is fine because he's still sharing shit memes on facebook.

Yes our offices are maybe 15 mins from Waterloo at a placed called Braine, but my hotel is in Waterloo. I had a similar issue once, A guy took us to a beer shop\bar where he said they had the best beer ever brewed by monks. It was ok, I don't really like the strong beer they have over here. It cost me 50 Euro for 3 33cl bottles!

Islamic State Group claimed responsibility for it.

I know what you are saying and I will be off to Midi station for a train home tomorrow fingers crossed.

Now I'm back at the hotel and what was a busy work day is over I can't help thinking I had a lucky escape

I was due to be there tomorrow where this went off and pretty much at the same time, I also started thinking that maybe these nutters had a planning meeting and that one of them might have wanted to do this tomorrow but the other 2 argued for today.

My wife was very upset on the phone 30 mins ago around this, need some beer to sort my head out as thinking like this is bollocks and not good.

I've heard the music there is rubbish.

I'll give you 9\10 for that one

I figured it was worth at least a 5/7.

That's 1000x less bad than a 9/11

Got home Ok, it was very hassle free getting on Euro Star and the train was quit. Left my phone in the black cab so won't see that again.

Confirmed today that one of my company's workers was at the airport seeing his wife off to Peru (where she is from) when the bombs went off.

His wife is dead and one of his twin girls was hurt but ok

Fuck this week

Fuck me man that's bad. Glad you're home OK though.