Rushden man on way to Brussels describes chaos after bomb blasts

Former BBC Northampton presenter Paul Needle was on the Eurostar heading towards Belgium when news of the attacks first broke.

He was on his way to a church service at Brussels Anglican Cathedral at midday – but has now been forced to head home.

He said: “I would much rather be in Brussels for the church service which I imagine will be an emotional event.

“There are people arriving from all over Europe for the service and I almost got caught up in it.

“I imagine there will be some people who may have been at Brussels airport when there was an explosion there.

“We are awaiting news and it’s a worrying time.”

The first explosion was at Zaventum airport at 7am GMT, with reports of a blast at Maalbeek metro station just moments later.

Reports suggest that at least 13 have been killed in the explosions.

Mr Needle added: “We were only five minutes from Brussels when they decided to turn our train around.

“Our train was still in England when the first attack happened but it’s worrying.

“Nobody seems to know what’s going on.”