Security alert level lowered in Brussels

The security threat level in Brussels has been lowered after almost a week of being on maximum alert following the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Soldiers and police patrol on Grand Place, the city's main square, in Brussels, Belgium, 23 November 2015. Source: AAP

Belgium has lowered the security threat level in Brussels after nearly a week on maximum alert following the Islamic State attacks in Paris.

Confirming earlier reports, Kris Peeters, the economy minister, on Thursday told public broadcaster VRT that the national threat assessment agency, made up of security experts and officials, had taken the decision.

The government's national security council was meeting to discuss concrete measures to be taken.

The reduction to Level 3 - serious, a possible and probable threat - from Level 4 - a very serious, "imminent" threat - brings the capital into line with the rest of the country.

Immediately after the Paris attacks on November 13, Belgium raised its security alert to Level 3 and a week later put Brussels onto maximum alert as police hunted a local suspect in the violence in France as well as accomplices who the government said might be planning similar attacks in the Belgian capital.

The suspect remains at large. Police have mounted a number of raids and searches over the past two weeks in Belgium and have charged five people with terrorism offences linked to the Paris attacks.

On Thursday firecrews and decontamination teams also attended a major mosque in Brussels close to the European Union headquarters to investigate a suspect powder that police later said turned out to be flour.

Reuters journalists saw about a dozen emergency vehicles, including police, outside the Islamic and Cultural Centre of Belgium, a large Saudi-established institution including a mosque situated 200 metres from the European Commission.

A spokeswoman for the fire service said it had taken a call from the mosque from a person saying they believed that they had found anthrax powder, prompting the deployment of specialist crews. A police spokesman later said the substance was flour.

There have been reports of threats against mosques used by Belgium's half million Muslims in the past two weeks, among them some from an unknown group calling itself Christian State.