No Indication Yet Of Any American Deaths In Brussels Attacks
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Obama administration said it's unaware of any Americans killed in the Brussels attacks.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said about a dozen U.S. citizens are known to be injured. A number of other Americans remain unaccounted for.
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Toner said it's unclear if any Americans might be among the dead because Belgium hasn't released the nationalities of those killed.
At least 34 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Tuesday's bombings at the Brussels airport and subway.
Toner said Wednesday the United States is still doing its own, post-attack accounting and making every effort to support the welfare of embassy staff and U.S. citizens in the city.
The father of Sebastian Bellin found out his son was hurt in the airport bombings when friends saw a photo of Bellin wounded on the ground and called him.
"I knew when they took this picture he was alive, but then you wonder, you see all this blood and you say, is he going to make it?" Jean Bellin said.
Bellin played for two NCAAA teams in the U.S. He was headed home to Michigan where he lives with his family. His father spoke to him in the hospital.
"I think he was speaking very weakly and very slowly because he was in shock," he said. "He saw people dead and people dying, so I'm sure that will stay with him for the rest of his life."
A U.S. Air Force officer and members of his family were also wounded, some of them reportedly in serious condition.
Also hurt in the attacks were three Mormon missionaries from Utah. Richard Norby, 66, Joseph Empey, 20, and Mason Wells, 19, were serving in Paris and were seriously wounded at the Brussels airport where two explosions occurred.
Court and Amber Empey said their son Joseph is doing well after being treated for second-degree burns to his hands, face and head. They said he has come out of surgery Tuesday for shrapnel injuries to his legs.
Chad Wells said his son Mason was feet away from the blast, suffering severe burns and a severed Achilles tendon.
Incredibly, this is not Wells' first brush with terrorism. He was standing near the finish line during the Boston marathon bombing three years ago and he was in France, although not in Paris, during the November attacks there.
Norby's family said in a statement issued by the Mormon church Wednesday that shrapnel caused severe trauma to the man's lower leg and he also suffered second-degree burns to his head and neck.
Following a lengthy surgery, he is now expected to stay in a medically-induced coma for a few days.
A fourth missionary, 20-year-old Fanny Rachel Clain from Montelimar, France, was in a different location at the airport and was hospitalized with minor injuries.
There are some reports of missing Americans, including brother and sister Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski, who have family in the Netherlands but have been living in New York.
Many have been posting about their disappearance on social media.
They were reportedly on the phone with their mother when she heard an explosion and the phone went dead.
A husband and wife originally from Tennessee and Kentucky are also among the missing.
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