Around 9.45 a.m. on Tuesday, passengers and staff present on Brussels-North station heard a message over the tannoy, stipulating that the station should be evacuated “on the orders of the security services.” Several hundred people gathered on the squares outside of the station buildings. However it quickly appeared that the fire alarm was activated in error.
The details of the evacuation were quickly communicated on Twitter. However, the SNCB (Belgian national rail) Communications Service swiftly indicated to Belga that this was a false alarm.
The SNCB stated on Twitter that there was a problem with the fire alarm. The company stated, “The voice message automatically activated, but Securail [which has responsibility for rail security] said it was not necessary to carry out the evacuation procedure.”
Everything was back to normal around 10 a.m. The SNCB say that it is rare that the alarm ever activates in error in any of the Brussels stations.
The Brussels Times
