Eric Van der Sypt, Belgium's federal magistrate, said the suspect, identified by his initials O.Z., was not known to investigators for being involved in terror activities but police were aware of him, the New York Times reported.
There were no other casualties.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel says that the shooting of a suspect at the Brussels Central train station "could have been potentially very unsafe".
"There is a very heavily armed police and military presence", Al Jazeera's Neave Barker, reporting from near the Central Station on Tuesday following the attack, said. Van der Sypt said the man did not have an explosive belt. The prosecutor's office has not so far specified whether the man shot has died or is being treated for his injuries and have not identified the man.
All train traffic into Brussels Central station has been halted according to the SNCB, the government-owned railway company in Belgium.
Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said that the identity of the individual is "known".
Security will be particularly beefed up at the 50,000-seat King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, where British rock band Coldplay is scheduled perform later on Wednesday.
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The latest attack took place as government forces continue to wind down operations against Maute fighters in Marawi City. Community leaders in the area were called in to help in negotiations to rescue the hostages, Padilla said.
Earlier reports said the man was wearing an explosive belt, but Van der Sypt said that wasn't true. In the weeks before summer begins, Europe has been facing a wave of "small" terrorist attacks that have put the population and travelers on alert.
Soldiers, who have been guarding the station following the March 2016 Brussels attacks, then shot the man, "neutralising" him, prosecutors said.
An employee at the station said he stood next to the suspect, who he described as in his 30s, and having uttered the words "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).
"Then he yelled "Allahu Akbar", and he blew up a wheeled suitcase", Van Herrewegen told reporters.
The attacker planned to carry out a bigger explosion and had a powerful explosive device, but failed to do so, Jambon added.
Smoke billowed through the elegant 1930s marble hallways of the station, sending people fleeing to the surface, well aware of last year's attacks at Brussels airport and on the metro, as well as of a string of Islamic State-inspired assaults in France, Germany, Sweden and Britain. "People were running away".
The federal crisis center said the situation was "under control" about an hour after the explosion but kept the country's terror alert at level 3, the second highest. The alleged assailant, a 36-year-old Moroccan national, was shot and killed by authorities.
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