Brussels airport delays reopening despite drills

Brussels airport said it would not reopen on Wednesday despite drills to test resuming partial services.

Hundreds of employees returned to the airport on Tuesday for a large-scale test run to determine if services could partially resume from Wednesday - but those hopes were dashed.

The airport's chief executive Arnaud Feist has warned it could take "months" for Zaventem to be fully operational again.

Zaventem airport has been closed since two suicide bombers blow themselves up on March 22, wrecking the departure hall. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks and the one an hour later on the Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels.

A total of 32 people were killed in Belgium's worst attacks, the government said, down from an earlier announcement of 35 following confusion between two lists of people who had died at the scene and in hospital.

"After thorough verification, the number of dead is 32, with still 94 people in hospital," Health Minister Maggie de Block tweeted.

All the victims have now been identified - many of them foreigners, testament to the cosmopolitan nature of a city that is home to both the European Union and NATO.

The city's metro system was set to be back to normal again from Wednesday, apart from Maelbeek station where the bombing took place.

Hunt back on

As Brussels struggles to get back on its feet, criticism of the authorities' handling of the case has mounted after the sole suspect charged over the attacks was freed on Monday for lack of evidence.

Prosecutors had charged the suspect, named by media as Faycal Cheffou, with "terrorist murder" and were investigating whether he was the third airport attacker who fled after his bomb did not detonate.

But the hunt is now back on for the so-called "man in the hat", seen in CCTV footage next to the two suicide bombers at the airport.

The man's lawyer said his client was let go because he had an alibi, based on telephone analysis, that showed he was at home at the time of the attacks.

AFP - Reuters