AN EMAIL WHICH would have closed the Brussels metro was sent four minutes before an explosion rocked the Maelbeek station, killing 14 people.

However, a Belgian parliamentary commission has heard that the email was sent to the wrong address.

Maelbeek, the closest metro station to the European Commission building in the Belgian capital, remained closed for over a month following the attack.

Suicide bombers killed 32 people at the city’s airport and Maelbeek on 22 March.

A Belgian parliamentary commission has been formed to establish the causes behind the attack.

Yesterday, head of the Brussels railway police Jo Decuyper told MPs that the emergency communications system, known as Astrid didn’t function well, and that some text messages he tried to transmit from his mobile phone are still stuck in the “out” box.

Decuyper told lawmakers that police commanders sent him an email shortly before the subway attack that ordered the Brussels Metro system temporarily shut down, but that he didn’t get the message until later because it had been addressed to his personal account.

He said he only read the email the following day.

He added that the station needed at least 30 minutes to be evacuated.

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