Emergency workers at the site of Brussels airport bombing
Emergency workers at the site of Brussels airport bombingReuters

The Brussels, Belgium bombing cell planned to attack the Euro 2016 soccer cup, a French news agency reports Monday, which is being held in France this summer. 

On Sunday, prosecutors revealed that the cell - which includes dozens of Islamists, many of whom are related - had not initially chosen Brussels' airport and metro stations as a target, but had initially planned a mass terror attack in France.

After his Friday arrest, Brussels bomber Mohamed Abrini revealed that the true target was the Euro 2016 cup, Libération reports - an event held in 10 different locations throughout the country and beginning and ending in Paris. 

Police told the daily that the news did not surprise investigators, and that police forces were "always looking at potential scenarios" to prepare for potential attacks. 

It is unclear why the terrorists opted to change their target, though some suspects had previously admitted to having expedited attack plans due to fears security forces were closing in on them. 

Large terror network

Prosecutors have already filed charges against four people believed to have been involved in the attacks last month. A total of 32 people were killed and 270 wounded.

Several suspects in the group have already been definitively linked to the terror attacks in Paris in November which killed 130 people. The DNA of one of the Brussels bombers - Najim Laachraoui - was also found on bomb remnants from those attacks.

The link has raised serious questions about the handling of the threat; the suspects had already been subjects of a wide-scale, international investigation following the Paris attacks, and carried out the Brussels bombings despite a slew of arrests in the Paris case.