CRI听力:Belgium on High Alert after Deadly Anti-terror Rail

Belgium is on high alert after a major anti-terror operation which has seen a pair of suspected Islamic militants killed.

Belgium's terror threat level had been raised to the second highest rating in the country.

Jewish schools across Belgium cancelled classes this Friday.

Witnesses say the two suspected militants were shot dead in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers after they opened fire on police.

"I heard gunfire, explosions, and in fact it proved to be serious. There has never been anything like it and it's a bit frightening. I have children, my wife was supposed to go out. Nothing is done so that we can de-radicalize and keep an eye out a bit more. I've lived in Verviers for 20 years, and it's been going downhill more and more over ten years."

Belgian authorities say both suspects had just returned from Syria.

Police in Brussels have also been conducting a series of sweeps in the fall-out from last week's attacks in Paris.

Meanwhile, in Germany, police in Berlin have taken two men into custody on suspicion they have been recruiting fighters and procuring equipment for the Islamic State.

The two have been arrested in a series of raids in the German capital involving some 250 police officers.

Authorities say the raids are part of a months-long investigation into a small group of extremists based in Berlin.

For more on the current terror situation in Europe, CRI's Poornima Weerasekara spoke earlier with Shen Dingli, Associate Dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.