“CRASS” Ukip leaders were roundly condemned yesterday for attempting to make “political capital” out of the triple terrorist bombing in Brussels.

Ukip defence spokesman Mike Hookem blamed EU internal open-border policies for the murder of at least 30 people in the Belgian capital.

“This horrific act of terrorism shows that Schengen free movement and lax border controls are a threat to our security,” he claimed in a statement shared by Ukip leader Nigel Farage.

“There are 94 returned jihadists currently living in Molenbeek, Brussels. This fact alone should alert people to the fact that open borders are putting the lives of European citizens at risk.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said the comments were “not appropriate” and former Labour leader Ed Miliband accused Ukip of trying to “use this terrible tragedy to make political capital” in the run-up to the EU referendum.

A spokesman for Hope Not Hate told the Star: “While most people were too still too shocked to react, or were thinking of those killed and injured, it seems that there was no depth to which others would stoop in order to peddle their racism and prejudice for a bit of political point-scoring.

“Trying to link attacks by Isis to Britain’s place inside the EU isn’t just wrong, given the timing it’s also incredibly tactless and crass.”

The BBC reported yesterday that most of the extremists involved in the terror cell believed to be behind the attack are Brussels-born.

Salah Abdeslam, charged this week over his role in the Paris massacre last November, is also a Belgian-born French national.