One of the suicide bombers who died in the March 22 terrorist attacks on the Brussels airport had previously been an employee there, Interior Minister Jan Jambon has confirmed.
Broadcaster VTM had reported that Najim Laachraoui worked at the airport for five years - until the end of 2012 - under a temporary contract with a company active on the site.
This would have allowed him to get informed about security at the airport, the broadcaster said.
Jambon told journalists 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, the Belga news agency reported.
But Jambon also warned against drawing hasty conclusions, saying that it is unclear when Laachraoui became radicalised.
"Radicalisation can occur in very little time," Jambon said.
"He may have become radicalised while working at the airport or later on."
The minister also noted that reinforced screenings 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.
Laachraoui was one of two bombers who died at the airport.
The 24-year-old Belgian national had left for Syria in 2013, and was also been linked to last November's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris.
