ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. - Among the many people impacted by the terror attacks in Belgium is a local college student studying abroad.
Emily West is a junior at Elizabethtown College, who was on her way to school at Vesalius College in Brussels Tuesday morning when terrorism struck the Belgian capital.
“When I got to class, I mean everything was just kind of a standstill,” she said Tuesday night. “We were just discussing what was going on. Students were terrified. One of my friend's moms was at the airport about to head back to the States, and there's a lot of terror going around.”
West's school canceled classes for the rest of the week, and her internship site will also be closed. She interns at the Macedonian mission to the European Union, just a few blocks away from the Maelbeek subway station where one of the attacks took place.
“A lot of students do go by that often, so for some of them it's really kind of ruined their plans today,” West said.
West says people in Brussels were already on high alert since Salah Abdeslam, the mastermind of the Paris attacks in November, was captured there days ago.
“We knew something was coming,” she said. “We weren't sure what, when, and I think you can't really prepare too much for these things. You can put as many controls as you want, but if someone wants to do something, I feel like they're completely able to.”
In the meantime, West has been in constant touch with her immediate family in Tennessee and friends.
“Having to tell people you know everything is fine, they've got it handled pretty well, as well as they can, closing down all the transport and everything is pretty big,” West said.
West says she's doing what she can to not let the attacks impact her daily routine.
“I mean, yes, we're scared, but I don't think you should let the fear get to you, I mean, that's the point of terrorism itself, to install fear in people,” she said.