A laptop used by one of the bombers from last week’s attacks in Brussels contained images of the Belgian prime minister’s home and office, an official said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said that “it is alarming that they were apparently scouting the terrain” around the lush Royal Park where both his office, “Le 16,” and his Lambermont residence are located.
A laptop found near the hideout of the suspects of the March 22 airport bombing first gained notoriety because it contained a sort of will of suicide bomber Ibrahim (“Brahim”) El Bakraoui, in which he spoke of being “in a haste” and “no longer know what to do.”
The computer was also “full of stuff” on many locations around Brussels in information garnered from the Internet, an official linked to the investigation told AP.
The official stressed however that at the moment there were “absolutely no” specific indications that the prime minister was under threat from the attackers.
Security around Prime Minister Charles Michel has increased since the attacks in Paris last November and in Brussels last week. Michel also has had several unspecified death threats over the past years, the official said.
Belgian prosecutors have identified Brahim El Bakraoui as one of two suicide bombers who attacked Brussels' Zaventem Airport, and they say his brother Khalid El Bakraoui was the man who carried out a suicide bombing at Brussels' Maelbeek Metro station, near European Union headquarters.
Reports last week said the two brothers were known to American government agencies before the attacks and were both on United States government counter-terrorism watch lists.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands said the FBI had informed it that the two brothers were being sought by Belgian authorities a week before the attacks, a claim which Belgium denied.