🔗 Share this article Alleged Scheme to Target Belgian Prime Minister Thwarted Belgium's police have taken into custody three individuals accused of conspiring to carry out an assault on the government's PM, Bart de Wever. Federal prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the PM and additional politicians. During investigations conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, close to the premier's private residence, officials discovered a alleged homemade bomb and proof that the individuals were preparing to employ a UAV. While the planned victims of the attack were not officially named by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot confirmed that the prime minister was included in the targets. "The news of a intended assault targeting PM Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister wrote in a post on social media on the investigation day. "It highlights that we are dealing with a very real terrorist threat and that we have to keep watchful," he continued. The three people detained on charges of plotting a terrorist killing and participation in the activities of a jihadist network all live in the city of Antwerp, according to the legal authorities. They were born in three different years between 2001 and 2007. On the evening of the arrests, one person was released, while the remaining two were undergoing questioning and scheduled to be presented before a court on the following day. The prosecution revealed that the suspects were detained after a judge ordered raids of their dwellings in the location by officials backed by bomb detection canines. Throughout these searches that they found a item which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", federal prosecutor Ann Fransen said at a news conference on the day of the events. Searches also uncovered a "bag of steel balls" and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she added. The official said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases launched in the country so far this year - more than the full amount of investigations in the previous year. In April, five suspects were found guilty for a previous year's plan to attack the prime minister while he was serving as the city's chief executive.