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Belgium's police have arrested three people accused of conspiring to carry out an attack on the country's premier, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities labeled the alleged plan as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the PM and other government officials.

During raids conducted in the Deurne area of Antwerp, near the prime minister's home, authorities found a suspected improvised explosive device and proof that the suspects were intending to deploy a UAV.

While the prospective targets of the strike were not publicly identified by the prosecutor's office, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was among them.

"The news of a planned strike directed toward Premier Bart de Wever is extremely shocking," the official wrote in a update on online platforms on the investigation day.

"It highlights that we are confronting a serious extremist danger and that we have to stay alert," he concluded.

The three suspects arrested on charges of attempted terrorist murder and involvement in the activities of a terrorist group all live in the city of Antwerp, according to the legal authorities. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

On late Thursday, one suspect was freed, while two others were undergoing questioning and expected to appear in court on Friday.

Legal authorities said that the individuals were detained after a court official ordered searches of their homes in the urban area by police officers supported by explosives-trained dogs.

It was during these searches that they found a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a press conference on Thursday.

Searches also found a container of metal spheres and a additive manufacturing device, with "indications that they intended to use a drone to attach a payload", she noted.

Fransen stated that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the nation this year - surpassing the total number of cases in 2024.

Earlier this year, five individuals were found guilty for a previous year's plan to target the prime minister while he was holding the position of Antwerp's mayor.