Need effective database in anti-terror fight: Brussels official

The mayor of one of 19 municipalities that make up Brussels has said that to enhance security, people need more resources and it was indispensable to have a better cooperation at the EU level with a true and effective database to exchange information.

"Even if Belgium and in particular Brussels at this moment are more under the general attention because of terrorism, I think that unfortunately we are with different degrees all in the same situation," Marc-Jean Ghyssels, mayor of Forest municipality, told Xinhua.

In Forest, fingerprints belonging to the November 2015 Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam were found earlier in March in a police raid.

"We need to work together and not in a divided way," said Ghyssels.

Ghyssels said the police district agent plays an important role because they know the field, they are in contact with the population and they know some secrets or can discover something unusual about a potential danger and communicate it to the judiciary police or the intelligence services.

"The problem is that sometimes because of issues of human relations or career, the different services are maybe in competition, this can provoke a drift in the investigation and we should avoid that," he said.

Ghyssels noted that people have to face problems on the basis of prevention projects with actions on the social, employment and housing aspects.

There are young people not particularly disadvantaged who are bored with life and are searching for an adrenaline fix, he said.

"About the future... my feeling is shared by a lot of experts on terrorism at a federal level and among the other mayors, that we are always under threat, there are what we could call 'sleeping' terrorists cells that could always rapidly act," he said.

"We solved a little part of the problem and unfortunately other countries like France, Spain or Italy are not completely protected," the official added.

Explosions at Brussels' Zaventem airport and at the Maelbeek metro station on Tuesday killed at least 31 people and injured about 300 others.