A van crashed into the terrace of a café in Brussels on Friday, causing six minor injuries before fleeing, and a suspect whose motives “are not known” was arrested shortly after, the city prosecutor’s office said. .
“The investigations led to the identification of a suspect who was arrested this afternoon by the police in Antwerp” (north), said the spokesperson for the Brussels public prosecutor’s office, Willemien Baert, during a conference Press. She refused to give any information on the profile of the arrested person who must be heard by the police.
Accident or attack?
“The investigation is still ongoing to clarify the exact circumstances of the facts. At this stage, the various tracks are still open, the motives of the suspect are not yet known, ”she added.
Referring to the possibility of a terrorist act such as Brussels has been the scene of in the past, she underlined that it was “not yet certain that it was an attack, it is possible that it’s just an accident”.
The vehicle was “driving at an extremely brisk speed”
Shortly before 1 p.m. “a van headed for a terrace on rue Saint-Michel”, in the historic center of the city, very busy, “and the driver fled in his vehicle”, had previously declared a door- word of the Brussels-Capital police. “The emergency services were very quickly on the scene, there were six minor injuries who were treated on the spot”, while the van was found shortly after, the same source said.
Following this incident, the body responsible for analyzing the terrorist threat in Belgium (OCAM) raised its alert level for a few hours from 2 to 3 for places frequented in Brussels before lowering it “in reason for reassuring elements” in the ongoing investigation, according to a spokesperson. “What is certain is that the vehicle was traveling at an extremely high speed” towards the terrace, where there was “a mixture of tourists, city employees, residents and Belgians frequenting the capital” , said the mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, quoted by the daily The evening.