AN Oxford MP who was in Brussels city centre when a man was shot dead after attacking two soldiers has described the city’s defiant attitude since the incident.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, was in the Belgian capital over the weekend to celebrate her father’s 65th birthday.

On Friday afternoon they ate lunch in the centre of Brussels near where the attack was to take place hours later.

Mrs Moran said: “I was very shocked, along with everybody else, that it happened not too far from where I was at the time.

“I did notice earlier in the day that there were police absolutely everywhere.

“It is quite disconcerting, you have soldiers with guns everywhere in Brussels at the moment.

“But afterwards there was a feeling that life is going on as normal.

“People have got used to the huge security here in recent months.”

The attacker was reported to be a man in his 30s who lunged at the soldiers with a knife before being shot dead.

One of the soldiers was slightly injured.

A Belgian federal prosecutor said it was a terrorist act but that the man was not someone who was known to the authorities for terrorist activities.

Mrs Moran said: “The heightened security is now a part of Brussels life.”

Two months ago Belgian authorities foiled a suspected terrorist attack on Brussels central train station where a man was shot after causing a small explosion in the building.