After the fatal shots at two Swedes in Brussels, the suspected shooter is dead. This was announced by the Belgian crisis center on X with. According to police reports, the man was shot while trying to escape.
Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told public broadcaster VRT, the man died on the way to the hospital. The weapon used to carry out the attack is said to have been found on him.
The highest terror alert level has been in effect in the Belgian capital since the attack on Monday evening; according to the crisis center, the situation will be reassessed on Tuesday. Two Swedes were shot dead around 7:15 p.m. The men were apparently football fans wearing Swedish jerseys; that evening the European Championship qualifier between Sweden and Belgium was scheduled to take place in the nearby King Baudouin Stadium. The game did not restart after the break.
Dem according to Belgian broadcaster RTBF The two men were shot dead in a taxi. The taxi driver is also said to have been seriously injured, but his life is now out of danger.
The alleged perpetrator is said to have confessed to IS
There is currently no evidence of a connection to the Gaza conflict, said a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office. The suspected perpetrator Abdeslam L., 45 years old, was known to the Belgian security authorities as a radicalized Islamist, according to reports in several Belgian newspapers. He lived in the Brussels capital municipality of Schaerbeek and is Tunisian.
“This evening we received terrible information from Brussels,” wrote Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer in an initial statement. “The government office and the relevant authorities are working intensively to obtain further information about the incident. The government is in direct contact with the Belgian government.”
According to RTBF, Belgian security authorities are in possession of a video in which the man claims to be a member of the Islamic State terrorist group and claims to have killed the Swedes to avenge Islam. The authenticity of the video is yet to be verified. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet quoted from the video the sentences “I am a Mujahideen for Allah within the Islamic State, IS. We live for our religion. We die for our religion. We thank God. Your brother Abulsalam takes revenge for the Muslims and now I have killed three Swedes. I thank God. I will meet God and the Prophet with joy.”
A terrorist group called for attacks on Swedish citizens
The Swedish national football team has now left Brussels again. As the Swedish television station SVT reports, the team was flown out that night on a charter plane. Swedish football fans were escorted to their hotels during the night – the last of them are said to have left the stadium at around 4am.
The investigation is currently being conducted by the Brussels public prosecutor’s office. If it turns out that it was a terrorist attack, the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office will take over the investigation.
Since the spring, there have been repeated burnings of the Koran in Sweden, which are covered by freedom of expression, which has repeatedly led to violent protests in the Muslim world. In mid-August, a terrorist group close to al-Qaeda on Telegram about attacks in Sweden and called against Swedish citizens.
Terrorism researcher Magnus Ranstorp from the Swedish Defense University (Försvarshögskolan) said Svenska Dagbladet, he was “dismayed but not surprised. Five or six terrorist organizations made specific threats to Sweden after the Koran burnings and the LVU campaign.” The so-called LVU campaign was a targeted disinformation campaign that claimed on social networks last year that the Swedish state was taking children away from Muslim families.