Witnesses describe devastating explosions in Brussels attacks: "It smells like apocalypse"

As the shock of the terror attacks slowly begins to settle and Brussels comes out of lockdown, testimonies from witnesses of the three bomb blasts in the Belgian capital trickle out.

At least 30 people died and nearly 200 people were injured after explosions went off at a subway station and an airport at 8 am local time Tuesday. The attacks brought the city to a halt.

"There's no subway, no train, no plane and the atmosphere is that of the end of the world," a Brussels resident told the French newspaper Le Figaro this morning. "The phones don't work, the networks are too busy, the streets are deserted, it smells like the apocalypse."

Two blasts hit the Brussels airport's main terminal outside a security checkpoint, shattering the glass windows and knocking down ceiling tiles. People frantically ran out of the terminal, those still in planes were forced to stay on the tarmac until it was safe to leave, and some passed wounded bodies on the way out, witnesses told Belgian TV station RTBF.

At the subway stations, people piled out of trains onto smoky tracks to get out of the tunnels safely.

Go deeper:

• Read updates on what we know from the Brussels attacks.
• Vox's Max Fisher on why the attack on Brussels is the new European reality.

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