Two deadly explosions tore through the departure hall of Brussels airport on Tuesday morning as hundreds of passengers were trying to check in.
With three runways in the shape of a \"Z,\" the airport connects Europe's capital to 226 destinations around the world and handled nearly 23.5 million passengers in 2015.
A woman is evacuated in an ambulance by emergency services after a explosion in a main metro station in Brussels.
People comfort each other after being evacuated from Brussels airport.
People react outside Brussels airport after explosions rocked the facility in Brussels.
All flights were cancelled, arriving planes were being diverted and Belgium's terror alert level was raised to maximum, officials said.
Belgian public broadcaster VRT said the Brussels Airport bomb was a suicide attack.
There were chaotic scenes at the airport as passengers fled in panic.
The Belga agency said shots were fired and there were shouts in Arabic shortly before the blasts at the airport.
Brussels has been on high alert since the deadly Paris attacks November 13, which killed 129 people.
Brussels Airport authorities took to Twitter to warn people about the situation at the airport.
Belgian media said rail traffic to the airport was suspended. The airport is being evacuated.
Panic and chaos prevailed at the airport as people started fleeing after hearing the explosions.
Images on the RTBF website showed smoke rising from the terminal building, where the windows had been shattered.
Passengers were led onto the tarmac and the crisis center urged people not to come to the airport.
\"One person has died and perhaps there are several more,\" said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the situation was developing. The official urged people to stay away from the airport.
Airport spokeswoman Anke Fransen said, \"There were two blasts in the departure hall. First-aid team are in place for help.\"
All flights cancelled as more bombs detected at airport; evacuation process on.