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Belgian authorities have taken into custody three individuals allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an assault on the nation's PM, Bart de Wever.

Prosecutors characterized the reported plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and additional elected representatives.

During searches conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, close to the prime minister's private residence, authorities discovered a suspected IED and proof that the individuals were planning to employ a unmanned aerial vehicle.

While the prospective targets of the attack were not disclosed by name by the federal prosecutors, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that Belgium's leader was among them.

"Information of a premeditated assault directed toward Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister stated in a post on X on the day of the arrests.

"It emphasizes that we are confronting a very real extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he concluded.

The three suspects taken into custody on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the operations of a extremist organization all are based in Antwerp, according to the prosecutor's office. They were had birth years in three different years between 2001 and 2007.

On Thursday evening, one suspect was released, while the other suspects were under interrogation and expected to face a judge on the following day.

Legal authorities stated that the suspects were arrested after a magistrate authorized searches of their dwellings in the urban area by police officers supported by explosives-trained dogs.

In the course of these investigations that they found a item which appeared to be an IED, federal prosecutor Ann Fransen stated at a media briefing on that day.

Raids also revealed a "bag of steel balls" and a 3D printer, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she continued.

Fransen said that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the nation so far this year - more than the total number of cases in 2024.

In April, five people were found guilty for a 2023 plot to target Belgium's leader while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.