Bomb alert in EU district in Brussels

Following a phoned-in bomb alert, dozens of people were evacuated from a street near European Union headquarters on Tuesday morning, just two days before the EU summit. The street was reopened by noon after Brussels police had inspected the area and declared it safe.

Ilse Van de Keere, spokesman of the police zone Brussels-Ixelles, said the alert was sparked after an unnamed consulting firm that works with the European Commission received an early morning phone call from a person saying that a bomb would explode around 10:30 am.

"We received a phone call and alerted police, after which the street was evacuated," Benoit Roussel, a consultant for the firm, told the local press.