Feature : Brussels clouded by wave of explosions

A wave of explosions hit Brussels in Tuesday's rush hours, tearing apart the ceiling of an airport's departure hall and a running metro train full of passengers, leaving at least 34 people dead.

Zach Muzun, a Belgian citizen, heard the explosions in a bathroom at the Brussels airport. It happened some 15 minutes after his arrival at the airport. His flight from Geneva landed at 7:45 a.m. local time (0645 GMT).

"There was a small explosion, then a big one," he said. He and other passengers were asked to wait at the luggage claiming area.

It took the police and airport staffs around 30 minutes to make primary clearance. "When we went out, almost everything is red. There was blood everywhere," Zackh told Xinhua.

At least 14 people lost life in the airport blasts. All the flights were suspended and those who on board were evacuated soon.

Swiss airlines staff Anthony Deloos was preparing his work which was supposed to begin at 8 o'clock. Then came the blasts. The advertising boards on the ceiling fell down, provoking a full room of paper scraps and dust.

He was shocked at first and could not move for a while. "Run, run, it is too dangerous!" His colleague shouted at him.

"I ran to the luggage room where the luggage were going down. And I jumped into it," Deloos told Xinhua. "I was scared, because if terrorists came down, we will be waiting to die."

The airport sits around 10 km from downtown. The highways were soon blocked, with only police cars and ambulances moving fast towards the airport.

On the streets near the airport, there were full of evacuated passengers and staffs, including two groups of Chinese tourists, one consists of 32 people and the other 38.

The guide Chu Xiongwei told Xinhua that they were scheduled to fly back to China by the flight HU492; now they had to stay. The tourists were making phone calls to their families.

China's Hainan airlines, which operate direct flights between Beijing and Brussels, announced HU492 would delay and all its customers whose flights would be from March 23 to April 5 could return or reschedule tickets for free.

The police gave passengers two ways of further evacuation: to the Zaventem central station where the airport is located or move to a nearby gym.

"Currently all the public transitions stop, the passengers could go to these two places for transfer or wait to be picked up by family members," a police office told Xinhua.

Approximately one hour after the airport explosions, another blast hit the Maelbeek metro station which is within hundreds of meters from the European Union complex, leaving 20 people dead and 106 others injured.

"The metro train I boarded stopped halfway while heading from Arts-Loi to Maelbeek at around 9:10 a.m.", said Han Shuang, a Belgian resident.

"The train was crowded with people, we have to get out of the metro via the back door and walk on the track in darkness to get out," she told Xinhua.

There was a strong smell of burnt metal. "I saw a body on the ground with a yellow cover while walking past the Maelbeek station," she said, "It is too horrible."

"Get out, get out!" metro staffs told passengers at the Schuman station, which is Maelbeek's adjacent station and at the core of the EU institutions.

Shortly, Brussels announced that all metros and buses stopped and the threat alert was raised to the highest level.

"This is a dark tragedy black for our country," said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. Endit