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Belgian law enforcement have arrested three people suspected of conspiring to carry out an assault on the government's prime minister, Bart de Wever.

Federal prosecutors labeled the alleged plot as a extremist assault with jihadist roots targeting the premier and additional elected representatives.

During investigations conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, close to the PM's private residence, authorities found a suspected improvised explosive device and proof that the individuals were planning to use a UAV.

While the prospective targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was one of them.

"Reports of a intended attack directed toward Premier Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot stated in a post on X on Thursday.

"This underscores that we are facing a very real terrorist threat and that we have to remain vigilant," he added.

The three suspects detained on allegations of terrorism-related attempted murder and involvement in the activities of a jihadist network all are based in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the federal prosecutors. They were had birth years in three different years between 2001 and 2007.

By late Thursday, one of the individuals was freed, while the remaining two were still being questioned and scheduled to be presented before a court on the following day.

Legal authorities stated that the suspects were arrested after a court official ordered inspections of their dwellings in the city by officials assisted by explosives-trained dogs.

It was during these searches that they found a object which appeared to be an IED, legal representative Ann Fransen said at a press conference on Thursday.

Raids also revealed a "bag of steel balls" and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she added.

The prosecutor stated that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the nation this year - more than the total number of investigations in the previous year.

Earlier this year, five suspects were found guilty for a 2023 plot to strike Belgium's leader while he was acting as the city's chief executive.