Two arrests after major police search in Brussels' EU quarter

Two people holed up in a building close to the European Commission were arrested in a major police operation in the European quarter of Brussels Monday evening, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said on February 7.

The suspects, who were in possession of firearms, had been involved in “a sale of luxury watches that went wrong,” the prosecutor’s office told Belgian news wire Belga and confirmed to POLITICO.

Authorities deployed at least one helicopter, dozens of officers and fire trucks to the scene, shutting down part of the area on Monday evening amid concerns about the armed suspects inside a building on Rue Boduognat, located between Ambiorix Square and the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, according to media reports.