WILTSHIRE management consultant Gynnette Ranger-Walsh was stunned to hear about the terror attacks on Brussels today in which 34 people are thought to have died.

She travels to Brussels most weeks to visit a client health club and had only returned home to Lea, near Brinkworth, late on Saturday night.

On Friday she spent the evening out in the city, hours after the arrest of Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam and used the Maelbeek Metro station.

“We heard the news that the terrorist had been arrested and it didn’t seem such a big deal to go out in Brussels,” she said.

Then, this morning, she was deluged with Facebook messages from concerned family and friends.

She said: “I got about 15 messages this morning saying: ‘Gynnette are you OK?’”

Even her mum, who knew she was not due to be in Belgium, called to make sure she was safe.

She then contacted her colleagues to make sure they were all safe.

One had been aboard a plane on the runaway when the explosion happened at the airport, while the manager of the health club she had been visiting had returned to the UK after the Eurostar was stopped 10 miles from Brussels. Both are safe.

Gynnette, who had to explain to her two young sons what had happened, said: “It is incredibly worrying.

“I think it can happen to anyone. That’s the scary part. It is all about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Brussels terror attacks facts

  • There were two explosions at Brussels Zaventem Airport at around 7am UK time.
  • About an hour later there was an explosion on a Metro train at Maelbeek station, near the city's EU quarter.
  • The Islamic State terror group (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they opened fire in the airport and "several" members detonated suicide belts. IS said a suicide bomber was also responsible for the Metro attack.
  • The death toll is at least 34. Fourteen people are reported to have been killed at the airport and 20 in the explosion on the Metro.
  • The attacks are believed to have injured at least 198 people. Of those, at least one person is British and was injured at the airport, Downing Street said.
  • The attack at the airport targeted an American Airlines desk. Local media reported that shouts in Arabic were heard as shots were fired.
  • One or two Kalashnikov rifles were found in the airport departure lounge after the attacks and at least one suitcase bomb exploded there, security officials are reported to have said.
  • The injuries of a number of victims indicate there were nails in at least one of the bombs at the airport, someone from Gasthuisberg hospital in Leuven indicated. Marc Decramer told local media the hospital is treating 11 people for wounds probably caused by flying glass and nails.
  • Brussels Zaventem Airport will not open on Wednesday.
  • All Eurostar trains to and from Brussels were suspended for most of the day, with services from London terminating in the French city of Lille. The cross-Channel operator said two trains from London to Brussels would run "for those whose travel is a necessity".