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Man, 30, shot in Brussels after knife attack on two soldiers Man, 30, shot dead in Brussels after knife attack on two soldiers
(35 minutes later)
A man has been shot in the centre of Brussels on Friday evening after attacking two soldiers with a knife. A man who attacked two soldiers with a knife in Brussels has been shot dead by the army. Authorities said they were treating the attack as a terrorist act.
The man is in a critical condition, Belgian prosecutors told Reuters. They also confirmed that the man was not known to have any terror links. “Incident in Brussels. Soldiers have neutralised an individual. Situation under control,” Belgium’s official crisis centre wrote on Twitter.
“With the identity that we currently have it is a 30-year-old man who is not known for terrorist activities,” said a prosecution spokeswoman. The soldiers were slightly wounded in the attack – one in the face, the other in the hand. Belgium’s federal prosecutor confirmed that the attacker was dead, while one soldier was lightly injured, in his hand.
Belgium’s anti-terror command unit confirmed that soldiers had “neutralised” a person. “A man armed with a knife attacked a group of soldiers. The soldiers fired at him and neutralised the individual,” said Belgian federal police spokesman Jonathan Pfunde. The attack began at about 8.20pm in the centre of the Belgian capital, not far from the bars and restaurants of the popular Sainte Catherine neighbourhood that is always busy on Friday evenings.
Television images from central Brussels showed that police have sealed off a main street not far from the capital’s main Grand Place tourist attraction. The attacker was a man in his 30s, according to state TV channel RTBF, which reported that he cried “Allahu Akbar” at the moment he launched his attack.
Belgium’s prime minister Charles Michel tweeted that “all our support is with our soldiers. Our security services remain on alert. We are following the situation closely.” A spokesman for the federal prosecutor said it was a terrorist act but the man had been identified as a “30-year-old man who is not known for terrorist activities”.
In addition to regular police, the streets of Brussels are being patrolled by soldiers due to a heightened threat level following a series of terror attacks in the Belgian capital in 2015 and 2016. After the attack was stopped, he was taken to hospital, where he is said to have died. Authorities are treating this as an isolated incident and have not changed Belgium’s terror threat level, which is currently at level three, the second highest level, which indicates a “serious and real” threat, but not an imminent attack.
In June soldiers shot dead a suspected suicide bomber in the city’s central railway station, but there were no other casualties in what authorities treated as a terrorist incident. Two months ago, authorities foiled a suspected terror attack on Brussels central station, where a man was shot, after causing a small explosion. In March 2016, 32 people were murdered and more than 300 injured in coordinated attacks at Brussels airport and the city’s metro.
More to follow... With European cities on high alert, armed soldiers maintain a high profile presence in Brussels, where they patrol the streets, especially around metro stations and embassies.
The Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, expressed his support for the country’s soldiers on Friday night. “Our security services remain vigilant. We are following the situation closely with the Belgian crisis centre,” he said.
Police cordoned off the street, Boulevard Émile Jacqmain, and video footage taken two hours after the attack showed police officers patrolling an otherwise deserted area.