Terrorism strikes Belgium again. This Monday, October 16 in the evening, around 7 p.m., a man opened fire on several people in Brussels, killing two people and seriously injuring one. In video claims cited by the authorities, the attacker, on the run and sought all night by the police, said he was specifically targeting Swedes, many of whom were present in the capital for a football match. A suspect possessing a weapon identical to that used during the attack was arrested this Tuesday morning.
Two people were killed in the attack, one of Swedish nationality, the other of Swedish origin and probably having Swiss nationality (or dual nationality), according to Belgian federal prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw.
A third person, “also of Swedish nationality”, was injured and is in hospital “in serious condition”.
The suspect managed to flee after his attack. A person, suspected of being the attacker sought by the police, was arrested this Tuesday morning in Schaerbeek, where the attacker resided, announced the federal prosecutor’s office. An assault rifle identical to the one used during the attack was found next to him, assures Belgian Interior Minister Annelis Verlinden.
The assailant’s home was searched during the night from Monday to Tuesday, but no one was found there, the attorney general had indicated earlier during a press conference.
The authorities claim to have identified the attacker, wearing an orange vest and traveling on a motorcycle during his attack. This is Abdesalem L., a 45-year-old Tunisian in an irregular situation on Belgian territory. He filed an asylum application in 2019, which was rejected the following year.
Known to the police for “suspicious acts of human trafficking, illegal residence and attacks on state security”, according to the Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, he was not being followed for radicalization, despite several reports. “No concrete indications of radicalization” had been found after a report in 2016, and a meeting was planned for Tuesday to discuss his case after a new report made “earlier this year”.
The federal prosecutor’s office, responsible for terrorism, was seized of the investigation. “A video claim was broadcast, in which the individual claims to have killed three Swedes,” said Attorney General Frédéric Van Leeuw. “In another video taken before the attack, the same individual appears hooded and declares that ‘the book of Allah is a red line for which he sacrifices himself’,” added the prosecutor. A probable reference to the Korans burned in Sweden in recent months.
Earlier, Belgian authorities indicated that the attacker had claimed to be from the Islamic State in a video, and had indicated that he wanted to target Swedes.
The alert level for terrorist threat was raised to 4 in the Belgian capital, the highest, implying a “reinforced police presence”, according to the Prime Minister. It was also raised to 3 in the rest of the country.
On the French side, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin indicated that he had reinforced the numbers at the border, although he assured at the start of the morning on RTL that he had “no information that [the suspect] was heading towards France “.
The 35,000 spectators who attended the Belgium-Sweden match, interrupted after the attack, were able to leave the King Baudouin stadium in the evening after having been confined there. The Swedish supporters were escorted back to the airport under police escort.
