Brussels attacks left victims from more than 40 countries

Identification of remains ongoing after suicide bombings in airport and metro station

From Belgians to Americans, Britons, Germans and Indians, the suicide bombings in Brussels on Tuesday left casualties from more than 40 countries.

At least 31 people were killed and 316 wounded after two bombs exploded at Brussels airport and one at Maelbeek metro station between the city centre and the European Union headquarters.

Prime minister Charles Michel said there were more than 40 nationalities among the casualties.

Nine foreigners have been identified so far, a Belgian foreign ministry spokesman said.

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"This is a preliminary number; the identification process is still going on and may take some time. We have one Peruvian, two Americans, one Briton, three Dutch, one Chinese and one French," spokesman Didier Vanderhasselt said.

Leopold Hecht, a 20-year-old law student at the Saint-Louis University in Brussels, was one of those killed. His Facebook page, headed by the word "Remembering", showed snapshots of a young man smiling with his friends or on holidays abroad.

Rush-hour deaths

Loubna Lafquiri

, a 34-year-old mother of three and a gymnastics teacher at an Islamic school in Brussels, was believed to have been at the metro station and among about 20 people killed during Tuesday’s morning rush hour.

A Dutch brother and sister who lived in New York were also among the dead, their family said on Friday.

They said Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were not on the list of surviving victims given to family members by Belgian authorities.

Briton David Dixon, a long-time resident in Brussels, died in the Maelbeek bombing, according to the British foreign office. A Chinese national was killed in the attacks, state media said, citing the Chinese embassy in Belgium.

Germany on Friday confirmed its first casualty, saying that a woman from Aachen had been killed in the bombings at Brussels airport.

Indian citizen Raghavendran Ganesan, who had been working in Belgium on an Infosys project with Belgian telecoms provider Proximus and had recently become a father, has also been missing since the attacks, according to his brother Chandrasekar .

Raghavendran usually took the metro on that route at the time the bomb exploded, he said.

Delta Airlines said its customers were among the fatalities in the blasts at the airport departure hall. A number of the victims have still not been identified. – (Reuters)