The bombs went off at 07:58 local time. A red flash scorched the departure hall of Brussels Airport before a cloud of white smoke began filling the terminal. Seventeen people were dead. Sirens blared as emergency personnel rushed passed fleeing survivors and towards the chaos. Footage of the carnage quickly leaked onto news networks. Among the clips; a woman, with torn clothes, staring through the camera lens. Her exhausted, silent expression asking, ‘why?’ as blood trickled down her dust-caked forehead.
An hour after the airport attack there was another explosion; at a nearby metro station. Fourteen more people were killed.