TheCable

Jan Jambon, Belgium’s interior minister, on Thursday confirmed the media report which said Najim Laachraoui, one of the suicide bombers was a previous airport employee.

The report revealed that Laachraoui spent five years working under a temporary contract with a company active on the site.

He retained his job at the airport until the end of 2012.

“This would have allowed him to get informed about security at the airport,” Jambon said.

He told reporters in Luxembourg, where he was attending a meeting of EU interior ministers that he had learned in the last days that Laachraoui had worked at the airport.

However, Jambon warned against drawing hasty conclusions, saying it was unclear when Laachraoui became radicalised.

He noted that radicalisation can occur in very little time.

“He may have become radicalised while working at the airport or later on,” he said.

Jambon also noted that reinforced screening of workers at airports and other sensitive sites were among the measures launched by the government following the March attacks.

More than 30 people died in the suicide bombing at the airport and a subsequent one at an underground railway station in Brussels.

Meanwhile, Laachraoui was one of the two bombers who died at the airport.

The 24-year-old left for Syria in 2013 and was also linked with the November attacks in Paris.