By Colleen Jenkins
(Reuters) – Three Mormon missionaries from Utah and a U.S. Air Force member and his family were among an unknown number of Americans hurt on Tuesday in the deadly bomb attacks in Brussels, government and church officials said.
No Americans are known to be among the at least 30 people killed in the blasts at the airport and on a subway train in the Belgian capital, the U.S. State Department said.
The blasts occurred Tuesday morning in Brussels, which is also the headquarters of the European Union. The attack on the subway train occurred at a station close to EU institutions.
“We know that a number of U.S. citizens were injured in the attack, but we do not have an accurate figure right now,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a briefing.
The American missionaries and service member were all injured in the attack in the departure hall of Zaventem airport, according to the military and church officials.
The U.S. Air Force said the airman was from Joint Force Command Brunssum in the Netherlands. He was not identified by name, and officials provided no details on his condition or that of his injured family members.
“We are saddened by today’s attacks and extend our sincere condolences to the victims and families of those impacted,” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said in a statement.
The three missionaries were seriously injured and have been hospitalized, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement.
The church identified them as Richard Norby, 66, Joseph Empey, 20, and Mason Wells, 19. They are based at the church’s mission in Paris.
Empey’s parents said he had been treated for burns to his hands, face and head, and had undergone surgery for shrapnel injuries to his legs.
“We have been in touch with him and he is grateful and in good spirits,” Court and Amber Empey said in a statement.
A fourth missionary, Sister Fanny Rachel Clain, 20, of MontÃlimar, France, who was with the American missionaries, also was hospitalized with minor injuries. Although Clain was with the three other missionaries who were injured, she had left them and passed through airport security when the explosion occurred, the church said.
Three students from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut were in the Brussels airport at the time of the attack but are safe, the school said on Facebook.
(Additional reporting by David Alexander, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler)
