US teen hacker, 14, admits Brussels airport cyberattack just hours after Isis bombing

A US-based teenager has reportedly confessed to the FBI that he was responsible for launching a cyberattack against Brussels Airport on the same day as Islamic State-led suicide bombings in the region killed over 30 civilians.

The Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgium said the child suspect tried to take down the website of the airport and "infiltrate its computer systems" but was unsuccessful. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the teen is not believed to have links to terrorism.

Making the announcement on 9 February, the prosecutor's office said information was provided to US law enforcement indicating the hack was orchestrated from an address in the American city of Pittsburgh.

FBI agents questioned the boy, who is believed to be 14-years-old, and officials said he later confessed to the attempted hack.

"The FBI proceeded to a house search in Pittsburgh upon a request for legal assistance from the Belgian Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, and interrogated a minor of American nationality," the office said in a statement. "He confessed having committed the acts."

It continued: "From the investigation and the first analysis of the seized hardware it appears that there were no terrorist motives for the cyberattacks and that they do not relate at all to the terrorist attacks of 22 March [2016] in Brussels and Zaventem."

A source close to the investigation told AFP the suspect was "not radicalised" and simply believed "it was the right time" to carry out the attack.

On the morning of 22 March, 2016, coordinated suicide bombings occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station. Both were later claimed by the Islamic State (IS), the terror group also known as Daesh.

According to AFP, the attempted cyberattack reportedly came just hours after the suicide bombers blew themselves up at the airport. In total, 32 civilians and three IS-linked terrorists were killed, with more than 300 people injured.

Police investigating the attacks said the terrorists were linked to a cell involved in the Paris attacks, which occurred in November 2015. Since March, Belgium has launched a high-profile crackdown on alleged terrorists in the country and remains in a state of alert.