Brussels man surrounded in 'bomb alert'

Police in Brussels say they have surrounded a man who was behaving suspiciously and wearing a heavy winter coat with protruding wires.

A large police operation is underway near Place de la Monnaie in the centre of the Belgian capital.
Several hours after the stand-off began, police tweeted that the situation was "unchanged".
The bomb squad is present. Shops nearby have been evacuated and several streets are closed.
Photos from the scene show a man kneeling with his hands up, while police point their guns at him.

Police say that they have the suspect "under control" but have not yet arrested him. The cordon remains in place.
"We got a call about someone acting suspiciously. Someone with a heavy winter coat - in these temperatures it's very suspicious.
"And there were wires coming out of the coat too," Christian De Coninck of Brussels police told Belgian TV. "We didn't take any risks. The person was stopped and kept at a distance.
"We are now waiting for more information from the bomb disposal unit which is at the scene now and then we'll know more."
It was 30C in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon.

 he BBC's Gavin Lee, in Brussels, says there are special forces at the scene, which is just outside a bar called Churchill's.
This comes a day ahead of Belgium's National Day, with heightened security in Brussels for the festivities.
Thirty-two people were killed in bomb attacks in Brussels earlier this year.
Last month, a man was arrested amid an anti-terror operation at a shopping centre in the city.