Live updates: multiple blasts rock Brussels Dozens killed, scores injured after blastsJihadi threat in Europe 'beyond control' of authoritiesAirport bombers wore single black gloves
Australian Tim Noonan would have been on his regular Brussels train, in his regular carriage, had he not over slept on Tuesday morning.
It was Mr Noonan's regular train - the very middle carriage he usually sits in - that was blown apart under a series of coordinated terror attacks that rocked the Belgian capital during the morning peak hour. 
"That's the carriage my wife and or I take pretty much every morning," he told Fairfax Media from his Brussels home.
"We got lucky, very lucky."
As it was, Mr Noonan was on the train immediately behind the one that exploded.
"It was about three stops in front," he said.
"I would have been on the train with a suicide bomber and there but for the grace of God went I."
The three-carriage train, in front of Mr Noonan's, was just pulling out of Maalbeek station in the direction of Arts-Loi - the next stop only a short distance away - when the blast happened about 9.11am local time.
An hour earlier, two explosions had torn through Brussels Airport, killing at least 11 people and injuring at least 230 more.
The train explosion claimed the lives of 20 people and injured 100 more, at least 17 of them seriously, in an attack disturbingly reminiscent of the 2005 London underground train bombings.
Mr Noonan, 56, who works for the International Trade Union Confederation and has lived in Brussels for 28 years, was already on the train when he learned of the twin airport blasts.
"We were already reading on our iPhones reports of what had happened at the airport. People were looking around the cabin of the train and it was clear people were concerned," he said.
"Then all of a sudden it stopped ... we got evacuated.
"Many people stayed on the platform, but it was very clear that the thing to do was to get above ground."
Footage from dark, smoke-filled metro tunnels, which started emerge on social media on Wednesday, shows people filing out of train carriages in shocked silence.
From the station, Mr Noonan walked six kilometres home, while checking on the safety of his colleagues.
On the streets, there was a palpable sense of fear, he said.
"It was a strange mood. You could feel there was fear, but you could also feel ... tremendous compassion, solidarity.
"Just walking back through the streets there were older people who were out on the footpath, wondering what was going on; people were reassuring them; police were checking vehicles that were suspicious; there was a lot of police activity.
"I would say there was a mixture of fear, concern and defiance."
Belgian authorities have not yet confirmed if the train blast was the result of a suicide attack, or a planted bomb.
The bomb, which detonated in the middle carriage of the train, spared the train driver Christian Delhasse.
Mr Delhasse has told Belgian broadcaster RTBF he initially believed there was a technical issue on board, but soon realised something much more serious had happened and pried open the driver's door with his hands to reveal a scene of carnage.
The driver helped his severely injured, bleeding passengers navigate their way off the carriages, through the dark, smoke-filled tunnel, to reach safety.
"I did what I had to do," he said.
"I had nothing, no injuries. I immediately complied with the procedures, it is all I can say.
"Seeing bodies on the floor, it marks you."
His colleagues at Brussels' public transport operator STIB praised Mr Delhasse's textbook response, saying he "demonstrated unparalleled composure".
"He helped evacuate the passengers, within seconds," they said. 
By mid afternoon, to reassure his relatives, Mr Delhasse wrote on Facebook: "For everyone, thank you for your calls, Grandpa's fine, everything okay with me."
POUR TOUT LE MONDE ,MERCI POUR VOS APPELS,PAPY VA BIEN ,tout ok avec moi
Posted by     Christian Delhasse on     Tuesday,   March 22, 2016