EC evacuated in security scare

The European Commission's headquarters in Brussels was evacuated yesterday in a security alert while police blew up an abandoned suitcase in an adjoining street, an EU spokesman said.

"The first analysis indicates it was a false alarm. There was nothing in the suitcase, except that somebody has lost a few suits," Commission spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters.

Police used loudspeakers to urge hundreds of civil servants to leave the European Union executive's Breydel office building at the heart of the Belgian capital's European district after the Commission security service reported the suspect object and called in the bomb squad.

There has been a spate of security alerts across Europe since suspected Islamic militants exploded bombs on commuter trains in Madrid on March 11, killing 190 people and wounding around 1,900.