'If I give myself up I'll end up in a cell': Brussels suicide bomber's last note

One of the Brussels bombers left a suicide note telling how he was desperate to blow himself up because he did not want to go to prison like his friend, Paris bomber Salah Abdeslam, Belgium's chief prosecutor revealed on Wednesday.

Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who helped kill 14 people when he set off his suicide vest at Brussels airport on Tuesday, left the will in the bin of the terror cell’s Schaerbeek safehouse. 

The typed note, found next to 15 kg of homemade explosives, an AK-47 and an Islamic State flag, said: “I don’t know what to do. I’m in a hurry. I’m on the run. People are looking for me everywhere. And if I give myself up then I’ll end up in a cell.”

Authorities also found chemicals including 150 litres of acetone, 30 litres of liquid oxygen, detonators, a suitcase full of nails and other bomb-making equipment including plastic trays, tools and ventilator.

Khalid, 27, who blew himself up at the Maelbeek subway station, used a false name to rent an apartment in the Forest neighborhood of Brussels, RTBF reported.

Authorities raided the apartment March 15 in an operation that led them to Abdeslam, whose fingerprints were found in the apartment.

The Tuesday attacks -- for which Islamic State claimed responsibility -- killed at least 31 people and wounded 270, he said.

Paul Van Tigchelt, head of Belgium’s terrorism threat body, told reporters the country is keeping the terrorism threat level at its highest level because of the danger of an imminent attack.

The airport and several Metro stations remained closed Wednesday. Security was tight in the neighbourhood housing the headquarters of European Union institutions, as nervous citizens began to resume their lives under a misty rain.