Brussels Attack Suspect Left Note In Bin Confirming He's 'On The Run'

'People are looking for me everywhere.'
The man at right is still being sought by the police.
The man at right is still being sought by the police.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

One of the two brothers suspected of carrying out suicide bomb attacks in Brussels on Tuesday left a note in a bin, Belgian prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who is suspected of carrying out the attack on the airport in the Belgian capital that left 14 people dead, said in the missive that he was “on the run.”

His brother Khalid El Bakraoui is suspected of carrying out the attack at the Metro station, which killed a further 20. One suspect remains at large.

“I'm in a hurry. I'm on the run. People are looking for me everywhere.”

- Brahim El Bakraoui

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, Belgian prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said: "A photo showing the three suspects has been issued and one of them has been identified, Mr Brahim El Bakraoui, because of his fingerprints, and he is of Belgian nationality."

"The second one on the left of the photograph has not been identified," he added. "The third one, in a hat, is still on the run and his bomb did not explode. It contained the biggest explosive charge and there was great instability of the explosives."

The prosecutor said that the note, which was found on a computer that had been left in a bin in the area of Schaerbeek, confirmed that Ibrahim El Bakraoui was "on the run" and did not "know what to do."

"We have found a written testament by Ibrahim El Bakraoui in which he said: 'I don't know what to do. I'm in a hurry. I'm on the run. People are looking for me everywhere. And if I give myself up then I'll end up in a cell'," said Van Leeuw.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech during the local town government heads meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on March 16, 2016
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech during the local town government heads meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on March 16, 2016
ADEM ALTAN via Getty Images

On Wednesday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said one of the Brussels attackers was caught in Turkey in June last year and deported to Belgium.

Speaking at a press conference in Ankara, Erdogan said that Turkish authorities had apprehended Ibrahim El Bakraoui in Gaziantep province in July 2015 and deported him to Belgium but he was released as they did not establish terror links with the suspect.

"[The] Belgian embassy was notified on July 14, 2015 about the deportation of the attacker, who was later released in Belgium,"Erdogan said.

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