LONDON — Belgian Transport Minister Jacqueline Galant has resigned after a European Union report criticized Belgian airport security.
Meanwhile, police in England said that five people from the central city of Birmingham were arrested on suspicion of being "concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism."
Three men and a woman were arrested in Birmingham on Thursday night and a man was arrested at Gatwick Airport, near London, early Friday, the West Midlands police force said in a statement.
Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, of West Midlands Police, said the arrests were part of an "extensive investigation" by the British security officials and international partners including Belgian and French authorities, "to address any associated threat to the U.K. following the attacks in Europe."
“The arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led," Beale said. "There was no risk to the public at any time and there is no information to suggest an attack in the U.K. was being planned.”
Galant's resignation came after a European Union report was leaked in the wake of the terror attacks at Brussels Airport and at a metro station that killed 32 people in the nation's capital on March 22. Sixteen of the dead were killed at the airport.
The confidential EU report from April 2015, which was was made public by two Belgian opposition parties, said there were serious deficiencies in the way safety checks are managed at Belgian airports. They included a failure to keep parts of Belgium's national civil aviation security program up to date, such as regarding the use of explosive-detecting dogs, the Financial Times reported.
Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters Friday that Galant “presented her resignation to the King and the King accepted it." Galant had said she had not seen the report, but Michel said “a summary of this report was discussed and sent to the minister’s cabinet in June 2015,” the Associated Press reported. Michel said he would name a replacement for Galant as soon as possible.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks, as well as the attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.
