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Belgian police have arrested three individuals suspected of plotting an strike on the government's PM, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities described the reported plot as a "jihadist-inspired terrorist attack" targeting the premier and other government officials.

During investigations conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the prime minister's private residence, investigators discovered a suspected IED and proof that the accused were planning to employ a UAV.

While the planned victims of the attack were not officially named by the legal authorities, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that the prime minister was one of them.

"Reports of a premeditated strike targeting Prime Minister Bart de Wever is profoundly disturbing," Prevot stated in a update on online platforms on the day of the arrests.

"This underscores that we are confronting a serious extremist danger and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.

The three individuals detained on suspicion of attempted terrorist murder and engagement in the operations of a extremist organization all are based in the city of Antwerp, as stated by the prosecutor's office. They were with years of birth in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

As of Thursday evening, one of the individuals was released, while two others were still being questioned and scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

Legal authorities stated that the suspects were detained after a magistrate ordered searches of their residences in the urban area by law enforcement supported by explosives-trained dogs.

Throughout these raids that they found a item which "bore strong resemblances to an improvised explosive device", legal representative Ann Fransen said at a media briefing on Thursday.

Searches also uncovered a collection of ball bearings and a additive manufacturing device, with signs of drone weaponization plans, she continued.

The prosecutor disclosed that there had been eighty counter-terrorism cases opened in the nation in the current year - surpassing the overall count of instances in the previous year.

During the spring, five suspects were found guilty for a scheme last year to attack the prime minister while he was acting as the city's chief executive.