BRUSSELS — Belgian authorities were searching Wednesday for a top suspect in the country's deadliest attacks in decades, as the European Union's capital awoke under guard and with limited public transport after 34 were killed in bombings on the Brussels airport and a subway station.

Police conducted raids into the night and circulated a photo of three men seen in the airport suspected of involvement in Tuesday's attacks.

Belgian state broadcaster RTBF has identified two of the attackers as brothers Khalid and Brahim Bakraoui. They are believed to have blown themselves up in the attacks.

The third man is at large and has not been identified.

The report Wednesday says the brothers were known to police for past crimes, but nothing relating to terrorism. RTBF says Khalid El Bakraoui had rented an apartment which was raided by police last week in an operation that led authorities to top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam.

Last week, Belgian police said they were hunting for a suspected Abdeslam accomplice, Najim Laachraoui. He is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the November attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed, according to a French police official who said Laachraoui's DNA was found on all of them and in a Brussels apartment where they were made.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The airport and several Brussels metro stations remain closed Wednesday. Security forces stood guard around the neighborhood housing headquarters of EU institutions, as nervous Brussels residents began returning to school and work under a misty rain.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

People holding a banner reading "I am Brussels" behind flowers and candles to mourn for the victims at Place de la Bourse in the center of Brussels, Tuesday, March 22, 2016. Photo: Martin Meissner

Story: Associated Press

TOKYO — A zebra that was on the loose on a Japanese golf course for hours has died after it was chased around by a dozen men including police officers, likely drowning after being shot by tranquilizer dart and plunging into a lake.

Police say the 2-year-old male zebra escaped late Tuesday from a horseback riding club. It had belonged to a farm in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan.

By Wednesday morning, it had wandered onto a nearby golf course in Gifu Prefecture, with TV news footage showing it zipping from hole to hole.

People were chasing the animal around the golf course, some holding lassos, trying to capture it, but with little luck. The animal would let them get close, then would dash off when they tried to rein it in.

It was shot with a tranquilizer dart, but then ran into a lake.

It was rescued within minutes, but its heart had stopped, and attempts to resuscitate it failed, said Takahiro Taniguchi of Tajimi police in Gifu.

Although the cause of death was unclear, as it may have died from the tranquilizer medication, it likely drowned, Taniguchi said. A veterinarian on scene said the zebra appeared to have drowned, he said.

“We pulled it out, but its heart had stopped,” he said.

HANOI, Vietnam — A prominent Vietnamese blogger who is a former police officer and the son of a late government minister went on trial Wednesday for alleged anti-state postings.

Nguyen Huu Vinh and his assistant, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, are accused of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state, an offense punishable by up to seven years in prison, said his lawyer, Ha Huy Son.

Vinh, 59, and Thuy, 35, went on trial Wednesday in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital. They have been in jail since they were arrested in May 2014.

Vinh, better known as Anh Ba Sam, was a police officer with the Ministry of Public Security in Hanoi. He quit in 1999 and set up a private investigation firm. His father was a government minister and Vietnam's ambassador to the former Soviet Union.

In 2007, Vinh set up the Ba Sam blog. He later launched two others — Dan Quyen, or Citizens' Rights, in 2013, and Chep Su Viet, or Writing Vietnamese History, in early 2014. The blogs provided links to news on political, social, economic and cultural issues from state media as well as activists.

According to state media, the indictment says two dozen articles posted on Dan Quyen and Chep Su Viet had "untruthful and groundless content" and "distort the lines and policies" of the ruling Communist Party. It also says the articles "present a one-sided and pessimistic view, causing anxiety and worry, and affecting the people's confidence" in the party and government.

The two defendants have denied the charges, saying they "have no relations" with the postings, according to Son.

The trial was originally scheduled for Jan. 19, but was postponed on the eve of the Communist Party's congress, which elected Vietnam's new leaders and charted the country's course for the next five years.

International human rights groups and some Western governments, including the United States, have criticized Vietnam for jailing dissidents for peacefully expressing their views. Hanoi denies that, saying only those who break the law are put behind bars.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for the release of both defendants. "The trial and continuing detention of a blogger and his assistant who have already spent almost two years in jail is farcical and a blight on the country's human rights record," Amnesty said in a statement.

Story: Associated Press

BRUSSELS — Explosions rocked the Brussels airport and its subway system Tuesday, killing at least 13 people according to Belgian media, injuring scores more and prompting authorities to lock down the Belgian capital.

Belgium raised its terror alert to its highest level, diverting arriving planes and trains and ordering people to stay where they were. Airports across Europe immediately tightened security as a fleet of emergency vehicles roared in to handle the carnage at the Brussels airport.

The explosions, which the Brussels prosecutor's office called terror attacks, came just days after the main suspect in the deadly Nov. 13 Paris attacks was arrested Friday in Brussels. After his arrest, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam told authorities he had created a new network and was planning new attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attacks.

Belgian media reported that 13 people were killed at the airport. Brussels police spokesman Christian De Coninck said some people also died at the subway station but he had no exact numbers yet on the dead or injured.

At the airport, two explosions splattered blood across the departure lounge and collapsed the ceiling. The explosions hit during the busy morning rush. Smoke was seen billowing out of the terminal.

Anthony Deloos, an airport worker for Swissport, which handles check-in and baggage services, said the first explosion took place near the Swissport counters where customers pay for overweight baggage. He and colleague said second blast hit near the Starbucks cafe.

"We heard a big explosion. It's like when you're in a party and suddenly your hearing goes out, from like a big noise," Deloos said, adding that shredded paper floated through the air as a colleague told him to run.

"I jumped into a luggage chute to be safe," he said.

Tom De Doncker, 21, check-in agent intern, was near the site of the second explosion.

"I saw a soldier pulling away a body," he said. "It felt like I was hit too" from the concussion of the blast.

All flights from Brussels were canceled, arriving planes and trains were diverted. Authorities told people in Brussels to stay where they were, bringing the city to a standstill. Airport security was also tightened in Paris, London and other European cities.

European security officials have been bracing for a major attack for weeks, and warned that the Islamic State group was actively preparing to strike. Abdeslam's arrest on Friday heightened those fears, as investigators said many more people were involved in the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris than originally thought, and that some are still on the loose.

Zach Mouzoun, who arrived on a flight from Geneva about 10 minutes before the first blast, told BFM television that the second, louder explosion brought down ceilings and ruptured pipes, mixing water with victims' blood.

"It was atrocious. The ceilings collapsed," he said. "There was blood everywhere, injured people, bags everywhere."

"We were walking in the debris. It was a war scene," he said.

Near the entrance to Brussels' Maelbeek subway station, not far from the headquarters of the European Union, rescue workers set up a makeshift medical treatment center in a pub. Dazed and shocked morning commuters streamed from the metro entrances as police tried to set up a security cordon.

"The Metro was leaving Maelbeek station for Schuman when there was a really loud explosion," said Alexandre Brans, 32, wiping blood from his face. "It was panic everywhere. There were a lot of people in the metro."

Francoise Ledune, a spokeswoman for the Brussels Metro, said on BFM television there appeared to have been just one explosion on the subway in a car that was stopped at Maelbeek.

Police direct emergency services after a explosion in a main metro station in Brussels on Tuesday, March 22, 2016. Photo: Virginia Mayo / Associated Press

At the airport, passengers fled as quickly as they could.

Amateur video shown on France's i-Tele television showed passengers including a child running with a backpack dashing out of the terminal in different directions as they tugged luggage, Another image showed a security officer patrolling inside a hall with blown-out paneling and what appeared to be ceiling insulation covering the floor.

Marc Noel, 63, was about to board a Delta flight to Atlanta, to return to his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. A Belgian native, Noel says he was in an airport shop buying automobile magazines when the first explosion occurred 50 yards away.

"People were crying, shouting, children. It was a horrible experience," he told AP. He said his decision to shop might have saved his life. "I would probably have been in that place when the bomb went off."

With three runways in the shape of a "Z," the airport connects Europe's capital to 226 destinations around the world and handled nearly 23.5 million passengers in 2015.

Passengers were led onto the tarmac and the crisis center urged people not to come to the airport.

In Paris, France's top security official said the country was immediately reinforcing security at airports, train stations and metros.

Story: Lorne Cook, John-Thor Dahlburg / Associated Press