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Belgium's law enforcement have detained three suspects accused of plotting an assault on the government's prime minister, Bart de Wever.

Prosecutors labeled the suspected scheme as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the prime minister and fellow politicians.

During searches conducted in Antwerp's Deurne district, close to the prime minister's private residence, investigators uncovered a suspected homemade bomb and indications that the accused were intending to deploy a UAV.

While the planned victims of the attack were not publicly identified by the federal prosecutors, Vice Premier Maxime Prevot stated that Belgium's leader was among them.

"Reports of a planned assault targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," the deputy prime minister declared in a post on X on Thursday.

"It highlights that we are dealing with a very real terrorist threat and that we have to remain vigilant," he continued.

The three individuals detained on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a extremist organization all are based in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

As of Thursday evening, one person was released, while the other suspects were still being questioned and expected to be presented before a court on the next day.

Federal prosecutors stated that the suspects were arrested after a judge directed raids of their residences in the urban area by officials assisted by bomb detection canines.

In the course of these investigations that they discovered a device which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen said at a media briefing on that day.

Raids also found a container of metal spheres and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she added.

Fransen disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in Belgium this year - more than the full amount of cases in the previous year.

During the spring, five individuals were sentenced for a 2023 plot to strike the prime minister while he was acting as Antwerp's mayor.