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That country so involved in Syria and Libya, with a long legacy of colonialism in the MENA, getting their just deserts.

Belgian troops shot a suspected suicide bomber in Brussels Central Station on Tuesday night after he set off a small explosion.

Shots could be heard inside the city's busy station as troops moved in to "neutralise" the suspect who, according to reports, was wearing an explosives belt.

The station and the adjacent historic city centre were packed with tourists and the area was evacuated as police set up a security cordon at about 9pm local time.

“There was an explosion around a person. That person was neutralised by the soldiers that were on the scene,” a police spokesman said. “The police are in numbers at the station and ­everything is under control.”

The Terror Events monitoring site said multiple witnesses and sources claimed that the perpetrator shouted “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is Great”).

Eric Van Der Sypt, a federal prosecutor, later said the small blast was being treated as a terrorist attack. He said it was still unclear if the man was dead and his identity remained unknown last night.

The Belgian capital has been on high alert for more than 18 months since Brussels-based Islamic State militants carried out attacks in Paris that killed 130 people in November 2015 and bombed Brussels airport and the city’s metro in March last year.

Pictures shared on social media showed what appeared to be a small explosion inside the station. Passengers fled in panic.

Trains into the station, which is one of the busiest in Belgium serving the northern and southern suburbs of Brussels, were stopped as police and army deployed in large numbers.