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Belgium's police have detained three suspects allegedly involved in conspiring to carry out an strike on the country's PM, Bart de Wever.

Legal authorities described the reported plot as a terrorist act motivated by jihadist ideology targeting the PM and additional government officials.

During investigations conducted in Deurne, Antwerp, in proximity to the prime minister's private residence, officials discovered a alleged IED and indications that the individuals were intending to use a unmanned aerial vehicle.

While the intended targets of the assault were not publicly identified by the federal prosecutors, Second-in-command Maxime Prevot stated that de Wever was included in the targets.

"The news of a premeditated strike targeting Premier Bart de Wever is deeply alarming," the deputy prime minister declared in a update on online platforms on the investigation day.

"This underscores that we are confronting a genuine terrorism risk and that we have to keep watchful," he continued.

The three people taken into custody on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the functions of a terrorist group all are based in the city of Antwerp, according to the legal authorities. They were had birth years in 2001, 2002 and 2007.

By the evening of the arrests, one of the individuals was let go, while the remaining two were still being questioned and likely to face a judge on the next day.

Legal authorities revealed that the accused were arrested after a judge directed raids of their residences in the city by law enforcement backed by bomb detection canines.

In the course of these searches that they discovered a object which closely resembled a homemade bomb, legal representative Ann Fransen announced at a news conference on the day of the events.

Searches also uncovered a collection of ball bearings and a three-dimensional printer, with evidence suggesting drone-based payload delivery, she added.

The prosecutor disclosed that there had been 80 extremist probes launched in the country this year - more than the total number of cases in the previous year.

Earlier this year, five individuals were convicted for a previous year's plan to target the prime minister while he was serving as the mayor of Antwerp.