Police shoot man in Brussels café during hunt for gunman who killed two people
Police in Brussels have shot a man after a gunman killed two Swedish nationals at a football match on Monday evening.
The man was shot in a café in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood after a suspect was spotted by people on a bus, local media reported.
Prosecutors said they were awaiting confirmation that the dead man was the suspect.
Belgian prosecutor spokesperson Eric Van Duyse told the AFP news agency that officers opened fire as they apprehended the man in the Schaerbeek area of the city, but did not say if the suspect was wounded.
Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told Radio1 (VRT): “He may have died on the way to the hospital. That last information still needs to be confirmed. But the search appears to have come to an end.”
Belgium police had been searching for a 45-year-old Tunisian gunman after the two victims, who were both wearing Sweden football tops, were killed and a third wounded on Monday in what Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called a brutal terrorist attack.
A man, who identified himself as a member of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility in a video posted online.
The suspected assailant, calling himself Abdesalem Al Guilani, claimed in a video on social media that he was a fighter for Allah.
The attacker, who unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium in November 2019, was known to police over people smuggling and illegal residence in the country, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told a news conference earlier on Tuesday.
Monday night’s shooting took place near Sainctelette Plein, to the north of the city centre – around five kilometres from the King Baudouin Stadium, shortly before Sweden were due to play in a Euro qualifier match against Belgium.
The football match went ahead but was abandoned at half-time after officials said the shooting may have been terrorism – with security officials saying the highest priority for authorities was to get the over 35,000 fans in attendance safely out of the stadium.
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.
Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level in August after Koran burnings and other acts in Sweden against Islam’s holiest text outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.
(This story is being updated)
