A manhunt was under way last night for a suspected Isis bomber after co-ordinated attacks in Brussels killed at least 30 people, injured hundreds of others and brought a terrorist atrocity to a European capital for the second time in four months.

Two explosions ripped through the check-in area at Brussels’ Zaventem airport, north-east of the EU’s capital and a few kilometres from Nato’s headquarters, shortly before 8am. A third device at the airport failed to detonate and was later dismantled by police.

Then a little more than an hour after the initial attacks, another blast ripped through a metro carriage at Maalbeek station in the heart of the district dominated by EU offices, killing at least 20 people. Belgian media reported 14 deaths at the airport, citing staff at hospitals.