Brussels, October 17 (Press Ki Taquat)
A suspect in a shooting rampage that killed two Swedish nationals in Brussels overnight has been shot dead by police and the weapon believed to have been used by the man has been recovered, Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said on Tuesday.
Verlinden told VRT radio that “we have the good news that we found the individual”.
Amateur videos posted on social media of Monday’s attack showed a man wearing an orange fluorescent vest pull up on a scooter, take out a large weapon and open fire on passersby before chasing them into a building to gun them down.
Authorities had been searching for a 45-year-old suspected Tunisian extremist who was known to police and was living in Belgium illegally.
Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said that a person may have been shot by police early Tuesday in connection with the rampage. “It appears someone has been shot,” she told VRT radio. “The federal prosecutor’s office still has to confirm the identity” of the person.
“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,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said at a news conference just before dawn. “Their lives were cut short in full flight, cut down by extreme brutality.”
De Croo said his thoughts were with the victims’ families and that he had sent his condolences to the Swedish prime minister. Security has been beefed up in the capital, particularly around places linked to the Swedish community in the city.
“The attack that was launched yesterday was committed with total cowardice,” De Croo said.
Not far from the scene of the shooting, the Belgium-Sweden soccer match in the Belgian national stadium was suspended at halftime and the 35,000 fans held inside as a precaution while the attacker was at large.
Prosecutor Eric Van Duyse said “security measures were urgently taken to protect the Swedish supporters” in the stadium.
