Suspected suicide bomber shot at Brussels railway station

Armed Belgian police have sealed off the scene. COURTESY
Armed Belgian police have sealed off the scene. COURTESY

Belgian soldiers have shot a man suspected of being a would-be suicide bomber at Brussels Central Station, officials say.

He was shot after reportedly setting off a small explosion and no-one else is believed to have been injured.

Prosecutors later said the man had died. They are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.

In March 2016, 32 people were killed in attacks on Brussels claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

According to Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique, quoting prosecutors, the man who was shot was wearing a rucksack and a bomb belt.

"Then he cried 'Allahu Akbar' and he blew up a wheeled suitcase," he told AFP news agency.

"I was behind a wall when it exploded. I went down and alerted my colleagues to evacuate everyone. He [the suspect] was still around but after that we didn't see him."

"It wasn't exactly a big explosion but the impact was pretty big," he added. "People were running away."

WATCH: The latest news from around the World