An order to close the Brussels metro system 21 minutes before a suicide bomber killed 16 people at the Maelbeek station was sent to the wrong address.
An investigation into whether or not the March 22 Brussels terrorist attacks could have been prevented was concluded Wednesday. The parliamentary commission found that police failed to inform metro personnel that the railway system could be targeted before the attack, mainly because an email alert was sent to the wrong address.
Two explosions went off at the Zaventem Airport at 7:58 a.m. that day. Jo Decuyper, chief of railway police for the Brussels region, was informed that the explosions were terrorist attacks five minutes later, but was not ordered to evacuate the railway system.
Belgium’s Federal Crisis Center took 50 minutes to conclude the city’s metro system could be a target, and sent out an order at 8:50 a.m. to close down all railway stations until noon.
But Decuyper never received the email because it was sent to his personal address instead of his work account. Another email was sent to Decuyper at 9:07 a.m, four minutes before the explosion at the Maelbeek metro station. Decuyper didn’t see either message until after the explosion — which killed 16 people and injured dozens.
Decuyper said it “would have made no difference” if the alert would have reached him, as it would have taken at least 30 minutes to evacuate the metro network.
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