LOS ANGELES, March 23, (APP/AFP) – Several Americans
were injured in Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels, officials said, including a Mormon missionary who had a brush with terror in two similar assaults.
Mason Wells, 19, was among three US missionaries from Utah who were
seriously wounded in the blasts at the Belgian capital’s airport, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said in a statement.
Wells, Richard Norby, 66, and Joseph Empey, 20, were accompanying to the airport a French colleague who was heading to the United States and was also wounded, the church said.
US media reports said that in a dark twist of fate, Wells had a similarly close call three years ago while in Boston accompanying his mother who was running the marathon.
The event was the target of a terror attack that killed three and wounded scores more.
NBC News, quoting Wells’s family, said he was also in Paris in November when the French capital was rocked by a series of attacks.
Utah’s Deseret News daily quoted a friend of the Wells family as saying the teen and Empey had both suffered burns and other injuries.
Wells “has burns to his hands and legs and some to his face,” Lloyd Coleman told the paper.
“Most of the damage is around his foot and ankle. A heel took the most damage, and the doctors are repairing it, but the family doesn’t know how bad the injury is.”
The US Air Force said one of its service members and several of his
relatives were also injured in Tuesday’s terror attacks in the Belgian capital that killed around 35 people.
“The United States Air Force can confirm that one US Air Force service member from Joint Force Command Brunssum, the Netherlands, was injured in today’s horrific attack at the airport in Brussels,” a statement said, referring to a NATO command.
“The airman’s family was also present and has sustained various injuries. Due to privacy concerns, we are not releasing the status of their injuries.”