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Brussels: Belgian police shot a man suspected of killing two Swedish citizens and wounding a third on Monday in Brussels in what Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called a brutal terrorist attack.
Belgian prosecutors said on Tuesday that a man suspected of carrying out the attack had been arrested. “It appears that the suspect has been neutralised,” Brussels mayor Philippe Close confirmed on Belgian TV.
The weapon used in the attack was found on the suspect, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told broadcaster VRT.
VRT said the attacker was found and shot in a cafe in the Belgian capital. Some time later, Belgian media said the man had died in hospital from his wounds.
A supporter is comforted on the stands after suspension of the soccer match between Belgium and Sweden at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. Credit: AP
The country has raised the security alert status of its capital city to the highest level, with increased police presence, particularly for Swedish people and institutions, and warned the public to be extra vigilant and avoid unnecessary travel.
Belgium was hosting Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifying match on Monday evening. The match was abandoned at halftime. Thousands of soccer fans were kept inside the national stadium for about 2½ hours following the shooting of the Swedes before kickoff.
“Last night three people left for what was supposed to be a wonderful soccer party. Two of them lost their lives in a brutal terrorist attack,” De Croo told a news conference on Tuesday.
Fans wait in the stands after suspension of the match.Credit: AP
“The perpetrator targeted specifically Swedish supporters who were in Brussels to attend a Red Devils soccer match. Two Swedish compatriots passed away. A third person is recovering from severe injuries,” de Croo said.
The European Championship qualifier was being played some 5 kilometres from the shooting in the centre of the Belgian capital, and more than 35,000 fans attended the match. With the suspect still at large and going after Swedes, Belgian authorities kept fans inside the venue for security reasons before they started the evacuation around midnight local time.
Fans chanted “All together, All together” inside the King Baudouin Stadium after the match was halted, with thousands of supporters from both sides also shouting “Sweden, Sweden!”
Manu Leroy, the CEO of the Belgian soccer union, said he discovered 10 minutes before kickoff that “something serious” had happened in downtown Brussels.
“It was decided in the first place that the match should go ahead because the stadium was the safest place to be at the time, so that the fans could stay here and be safe,” he said.
Police and inspectors work in an area where a shooting took place in the centre of Brussels.Credit: AP
A man, who identified himself as a member of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility in a video posted online.
Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told the news conference the suspect was a 45-year-old Tunisian man who sought asylum in Belgium in November 2019 and was known to police over people smuggling and illegal residence in Belgium.
Police were still searching for him at day break on Tuesday.
Belgium has increased the presence of police in Brussels, especially around places linked to the Swedish community. Authorities said the perpetrator chose his victims because of their nationality.
A Belgian federal prosecutor said there was no evidence that the attacker had any link to the recent renewed conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants.
Sweden in August raised its terror alert to the second-highest level, warning of an increase in threats against Swedish interests abroad, after Koran burnings and other acts in Sweden against Islam’s holiest text outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.
The suspected assailant, calling himself Abdesalem Al Guilani, claimed in a video on social media that he was a fighter for Allah.
The shooting comes at a time of heightened security concerns in some European countries linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict. France is deploying 7000 extra troops onto its streets after a teacher was fatally stabbed on Friday in an attack President Emmanuel Macron condemned as “barbaric Islamic terrorism”.
Video footage of the Brussels attack posted on the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper website showed a man in an orange jacket on a scooter at a street intersection with a rifle first firing five shots, then following people fleeing into a building before firing again.
According to a media transcript of the video message recorded by the self-declared perpetrator, he said he had killed Swedes to take revenge in the name of Muslims.
The sight of fans locked inside a major European stadium was reminiscent of the scenes at the Stade de France outside Paris when France’s national stadium came under assault from Islamic State extremists during a match between France and Germany on November 13, 2015.
Players and officials supported the decision to call off the match.
“I found out during the break on the way down and the decision from all the players and managers, both us and Belgium, is obvious, that we cannot play the match. It is completely disgusting,” Sweden coach Janne Andersson said. “I get so sad. It is extremely tragic and I think of those affected and their relatives. What kind of world are we living in?”
“A horrible shooting in Brussels, and the perpetrator is actively being tracked down,” said Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, adding that she was joining government talks at the National Crisis Centre.
Reuters, AP, Bloomberg
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