– ‘Covered in blood’ –
US officials confirmed that two Americans were among the Brussels dead. Secretary of State John Kerry said he stood by the Belgian people, echoing their backing for the United States after the 9/11 attacks.
“Then, voices across Europe declared, ‘Je suis Americain’. Now, we declare, ‘Je suis Bruxellois’ and ‘Ik ben Brussel,’ Kerry said in French and Flemish, the country’s two main languages, after meeting Belgian Premier Charles Michel.
Harrowing stories continued to emerge from survivors of the attacks, in which people of around 40 nationalities were killed or wounded.
Briton David Dixon, 51, who lived in Brussels, texted his aunt after the airport blasts to say he was safe, but happened to be on the metro system when a suicide bomber blew himself up, British media said.
A 19-year-old Mormon missionary was at the Delta airlines check-in counter when the explosions went off at Zaventem.
“My body was actually picked up off the ground for a moment,” Mason Wells told CNN. “My left shoe was blown off and a large part of the right side of my body got really hot and then really cold and I was covered in… a lot of blood that wasn’t mine.”
Officials confirmed the deaths of young Dutch siblings Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski, who were reportedly on the phone with relatives when the airport bomb went off.
Among only three fatalities formally named so far was Peruvian Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz, 37.
A Chinese national was also confirmed among those killed.
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