Explosion at Brussels crime lab, no casualties: prosecutors

Brussels, Aug 29 (AFP) An explosion at a criminologyinstitute in Brussels today has caused major damage but nocasualties, prosecutors and the fire service said. It was not immediately known what caused the blast, but afire service spokesman, Pierre Meys, said "it was probably notaccidental." The prosecutors’ office declined to speculate on thecause of the explosion at the Institute of Criminology in aBrussels suburb. Belgian media said the blast was caused by a car whichrammed the building. "The explosion was extremely powerful," said Meys."Windows of the lab were blown out dozens of metres away." He said about 30 firefighters were at the scene at around3:00am fighting the blaze. The institute is part of Belgium’s federal justicesystem. Among its tasks is to carry out scientific analyseslinked to criminal cases and to study the functioning of thepenal system. The explosion occurred with Belgium on high alert aftersuicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro stationnear the European Union headquarters on March 22, killing 32people. Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group,which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria andhas claimed numerous terror attacks in Europe in recentmonths.(AFP)AMS