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 About a dozen Americans were hurt in Tuesday's attacks on
Brussels' airport and a metro station, but there have been no
confirmed U.S. fatalities so far, according to U.S. officials, who
added that the situation remained very fluid.
At least 31 people were killed and more than 270 wounded in the
blasts that were claimed by the Islamic State militant group and
sent shockwaves across Europe and the world.
Among the U.S. citizens still unaccounted for were Justin and
Stephanie Shults, originally from Tennessee and Kentucky but now
living in Belgium. Adding to their relatives' anxiety, the Shults
were wrongly said to have been located on Wednesday.
Justin's brother, Levi Sutton, said a State Department official told
his mother the couple had been found, but that an hour later a
social worker called the mother to say the information was
incorrect.
 "Nothing is clear at this point so I don't want to say anything
else," Sutton told Reuters in a Facebook message.
It was not immediately clear what led to the confusion but when
asked about the Shults family being given incorrect information,
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, “We certainly apologize
for any misunderstanding.”
The couple have not been heard from since they dropped off
Stephanie's mother at the Brussels airport shortly before the
check-in area was rocked by the powerful explosion.
Stephanie Shults works for food company Mars Inc., and Justin is
employed by a filtration system company.
"We are working with authorities, and if you have any information
that will help locate Stephanie and Justin, please message us
directly," Mars said in a Facebook post.
Sutton said on Twitter that his mother would be arriving in Belgium
on Thursday, "and hopefully she can get some answers."
Stephanie's mother had her hearing damaged by the blast but has
vowed to remain in Belgium until her daughter and son-in-law are
found, her sister Betty Newsom told NBC station WAVE. "OFFICIAL
AMERICANS" MISSING
The chairman of the U.S. House intelligence committee,
Representative Devin Nunes of California, said on Wednesday that the
attacks may have targeted Americans..
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The State Department's Toner said the government was aware of about
a dozen U.S. citizens who had been wounded in the attacks and had no
indication that any U.S. citizens had been killed.
He said among those still unaccounted for were two "official
Americans," meaning they were U.S. government employees or their
family members. That description could include both State Department
employees, military employees or others, he said.
The United States has a large diplomatic and military presence in
Brussels, including at the U.S. missions to Belgium, the European
Union and NATO, which are headquartered in the city.
Counted among the Americans confirmed injured in the bombings were
three missionaries from the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, as well as a U.S. Air Force airman and four
members of his family.
Sister and brother Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski, whose
citizenship was unclear but who lived in New York, were also at the
airport and are unaccounted for, U.S. media reports said.
The New York Daily News reported that the siblings had just arrived
in Belgium and that they were speaking by telephone with a relative
when the attackers struck.
"Please help find my boyfriend and his sister Alex Pinczowski Sascha
Pinczowski," a New York woman named Cameron Cain appealed on
Twitter.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston and Colleen Jenkins in
Winston-Salem, N.C.; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Alistair
Bell)
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