Brussels police investigate ‘drunk’ officer after attacks

Brussels police have launched a disciplinary inquiry following last week’s suicide bombings, after a newspaper reported that a senior officer appeared drunk and incapable at a crisis meeting just after the attacks.

Brussels police have launched a disciplinary inquiry following last week’s suicide bombings, after a newspaper reported that a senior officer appeared drunk and incapable at a crisis meeting just after the attacks.

A Belgian police officer patrols in a metro station in Brussels, a week after the bomb attacks at the Brussels metro and Belgian international airport of Zaventem. (REUTERS)

A police spokesperson confirmed that the “incident” reported by newspaper La Derniere Heure was being looked into but declined to give details.

Belgian security services are under pressure, at home and abroad, over failures in tracking Islamic State militants also suspected of plotting November’s Paris attacks from Brussels. Police complain of staff shortages but also of unfair criticism.

An internal inquiry last month criticised La Derniere Heure for a story of drunken sex orgy at a police barracks just after the Paris attacks. The report cleared the police and troops concerned and an officer who was the source of the “rumours” was disciplined.