ALARMINGLY, this week’s outrage in Brussels is the fourteenth attack in Europe in the last 15 months.

More weapons found abandoned at the airport suggest it could have been even worse.

This attack claimed 31 lives and wounded hundreds more.

Four British nationals were injured. Another is still missing.

ISIS has claimed responsibility, the terrorists, once again, EU citizens.

Worryingly, despite Brussels being on high alert, they were able to create carnage.

They’d been hiding in a notorious area of Brussels, which the police reportedly avoid.

Only when Paris bomber, Salah Abdeslam, was apprehended there last week, after evading capture for four months, did a house-to-house search begin.

They were too late, and we must brace ourselves for more attacks, according to the head of Europol, Rob Wainwright, who this week repeated his warning that up to 5,000 ISIS-trained jihadists have slipped back into Europe.

At the same time, Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, has said that Brexit would bring “important security gains" due, most significantly, to “greater control over immigration from the European Union.”

As both these experts know, balancing our freedom against our security has never been more difficult.

Each step we take to protect ourselves inevitably leads to a corresponding loss of liberty.

Paradoxically, extra security measures, like scans or queues, present yet more soft targets for suicide bombers.

Amongst all the coverage this week, one young security analyst stood out.

She said our current protections aren’t working.

Changes would include profiling and more rigorous border checks on EU citizens re-entering the Schengen area.

Ludicrously, such moves are currently illegal under EU regulations.

If we are truly to combat this assault on all we hold dear, all countries within the EU must take control of their borders.

Anything less is a dereliction of duty.