Ixelles secondary school evacuated after bomb alert

Updated 3 September 2026 at 18:45 CEST — Police evacuated Athénée Charles Janssens in Ixelles on Thursday afternoon, 3 September, after receiving a bomb alert concerning the secondary school near Place de Londres. The Brussels-Capital/Ixelles police zone said officers took precautionary security measures and cleared the premises; the investigation was still under way at the latest confirmed update.

Police spokesperson Ilse Van de Keere told BX1 that the force had been called during the afternoon following a bomb alert at a school in the municipality. She said no further information could be released while investigators examined the incident. La Libre and BRUZZ also reported the evacuation, citing confirmation from the same police zone.

The authorities had not disclosed by early Thursday evening how the alert was delivered, when the evacuation began, how many pupils and staff left the site, or whether specialist search teams found anything suspicious. Police had also not announced any arrest, injury or confirmed explosive device. Those points therefore remain unresolved rather than established outcomes.

The school’s official website identifies Athénée Charles Janssens as a municipal secondary school at Place de Londres 5. Ixelles municipality says it offers general, technical and vocational secondary education, including Dutch-language immersion. The evacuation consequently affected a working school community shortly after the start of the 2026–27 academic year, although officials had not published attendance figures for Thursday.

The incident follows another precautionary school evacuation in Ixelles earlier in 2026. BX1 reported that Institut Saint-André was cleared in March after a threatening telephone call and remained closed the following day while police investigated. Authorities have announced no link between that case and Thursday’s alert at Athénée Charles Janssens.

For pupils, parents and staff, the immediate issue is whether the site has been declared safe and when normal access and classes will resume. Neither the police, the school nor Ixelles municipality had published a confirmed reopening timetable in the sources available by the update time. The next substantive information is expected from the police investigation or an operational notice from the school. Until then, the origin and credibility of the alert remain unknown.