BRUSSELS, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- According to the latest threat assessment, Belgium's National Security Council decided on Monday to lower the level of terrorist threat from three to two, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel announced.
On a scale from one to four, the threat level is changing from a "possible and likely" threat to an "unlikely" threat, with minor and "occasional exceptions," the prime minister said.
The decision does not mean that the soldiers on active duty who are patrolling in important and threat-prone parts of Belgium will disappear.
Belgium's deputy prime minister and economy minister Kris Peeters said at the COSCO Silk Road Platform in Zeebrugge on Monday that the lowered threat alert level meant "more tourists, including Chinese, will be able to come to Belgium," saying the level of security in Belgium had greatly improved.
A document from the Belgian interior ministry in December last year showed that "given the current security situation and the real factors of fiscal expenditure, we think it is possible to downgrade the nationwide terror alert level."
In a series of terrorist attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people on Nov. 13, 2015, the Belgian police were quick to acknowledge that most of the terrorists originated from the Molenbeek district of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. On Nov. 16 of that year, the level of terrorist alert in Belgium was raised to level three, the second highest level. Belgium's security alert level was temporarily raised to the highest level 4 after the terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016.
The level of terrorist threats in Belgium is divided into four levels. Levels one through four mean "extremely low", "low", "very possible" and "serious and urgent".
