A man wearing a fake explosive belt filled with salt and cookies sparked a major security alert in Brussels and an emergency meeting of key government ministers Tuesday by claiming he would be blown up outside a shopping center. Police said the man claimed to have been abducted and dropped off at the downtown City 2 complex. He said that the "suicide belt" would be detonated remotely, prompting a response that highlighted the state of frayed nerves among the security services and government. The suspect later admitted that he had made the whole story up, AP reported. Plice searched the home of the mother of the suspect, a man in his twenties identified in official documents only as J.B., finding materials that had apparently been used to make the fake belt, Brussels prosecutor Rym Kechiche said in a statement. Confronted with this information, J.B. admitted falsifying his story. He said he had given police the license plate number of a car he spotted in a street. The driver of the vehicle was questioned and then quickly released, Kechiche said. Prosecutors said J.B. was known to police and is thought to have had psychiatric problems. He has been remanded in custody over the hoax and a psychological assessment has been ordered. Straight after the pre-dawn alert, Prime Minister Charles Michel changed his morning program and a meeting of the Belgian crisis center was called. "The situation is now under control. The security services remain extremely vigilant," Michel said in a statement. Crisis center spokesman Peter Mertens said the nation's security alert was not changed. "That level, and the measures accompanying it, is already high," Mertens said. "The situation of this morning has no impact on the existing measures."
