Belgian police officers stand guard in a cordoned off area outside the Brussels Central Station after a small explosion in Brussels, Belgium, on June 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

BRUSSELS, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Europeans are experiencing mixed emotions due to a number of recent attacks and threats that have added anxiety and fears to the scorching summer heat.

"It feels almost surreal, just thinking that I could have been a victim," said Maximilien Hale, a 21-year-old university student who boarded a train that left Brussels Central Station 10 minutes before an explosion occurred there on Tuesday evening, causing huge panic and traffic disruption in the city.

No one was injured in the explosion except the suspect who was shot dead at the site by a soldier patrolling the station, which is at the heart of Belgian capital and the country's rail network.

The Belgian federal prosecutor's office considered the incident a failed terrorist attack, and identified the suspect as a 36-year-old man of Moroccan nationality residing in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, often depicted in media reports as a "radicalization hub."

Hale was on his way to visit his mother in south Belgium. He only learned about the incident on TV at his mother's house as his train journey was not interrupted by the incident.

"Everything looked normal at the station, then something like that just happened," he told Xinhua. "Of course I was scared. I don't think I will be able to take the train again without thinking about what happened."

Sofie, a waitress at a cafe in the station, said: "I heard the explosion and then I saw people running. A lot of police and soldiers showed up really quickly. Thanks to them it did not get worse."

Brussels has now been on high alert for over 18 months since the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015, which was plotted in Molenbeek and claimed 130 lives, and then the bombings at Brussels Airport and a downtown metro station in March 2016 that killed 32 people.

Following Tuesday evening's failed attack, Belgian authorities announced "an increased visibility and presence of the security services" in train and metro stations, while all public events will be guarded by such services with "increased vigilance."

"At the beginning, I thought it was only temporary to have soldiers everywhere, but now I feel that the threats have become part of our lives," said Sofia.

Brussels is not the only European city that is feeling the new wave of threats.

On Monday, a man believed to be an Islamic States (IS) follower, rammed a car into a gendarme van in the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, the same venue where an officer was shot dead by a terrorist on April 20 ahead of the French presidential election.

"The recent terrorist attacks in Paris, London and Brussels made me think. What do the terrorists want? What are their motives? Whatever it is, they have put the message of fear into the public," said Fanny, a Paris-based nurse in her 30s.

She's rather disappointed by how the government is handling the situation. "I don't think our government can stop them completely for the moment, because we don't have enough means. All of us should reconsider why we are trapped in this situation. There is no smoke without fire."

Meanwhile, in Britain, three attacks have already taken place since late May, adding to the worries for the public who have already been shaken by Brexit and the unexpected general election results.

On May 30, an attacker detonated a homemade bomb shortly after a concert by American singer Ariana Grande, killing 23 people including himself, and then on June 3, a trio of terrorists attacked passers-by on the London Bridge, killing eight and injuring dozens.

Both Manchester and London have reported a rise in hate crimes following these two attacks.

The most recent attack on the Finsbury Park Mosque in London early Monday morning is believed to have been fuelled by such hatred, in which a Welsh man drove a van into a crowd of Muslims, killing a man and injuring 10 others.

"These terrorist attacks are worrying because the people who did them grew up in England. They are not from somewhere else. So it is very difficult," said Ronald Noaman, a London resident who worries that the attacks might make the city "less multi-cultural."

Businessman Scott Woroch said that the British were making a real effort to handle the situation with their "keep calm and carry on" notion, but admitted that he would be "more conscious of crowds and what's going on around me," something that he would not have done six months ago.

In the Netherlands, a country that hasn't seen any terror attack in recent years, nearly 70 percent of people are worried that an attack will eventually take place, according to a survey published by the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

Nonetheless, many Europeans are expressing confidence in the battle against terrorism.

"We have a lot of confidence in the police and the local authorities," a staff member at the Finsbury Park Mosque said. "The police are everywhere and they are doing their jobs."

"We want the media to responsibly cover this issue and not to undermine the efforts of everyone," he added.

Brussels resident Yvan Van Heddegem said that he commended the police for how they had handled the failed attack on Tuesday evening, but wanted the judicial authorities to do more to identify and locate potential terrorists.

"Our society is not perfect, but we respect the lives of others," he said.