2023-12-07 00:12:51
By ST
Published 1 hour ago, Updated 5 minutes ago
A Belgian police car (illustrative photo). Ronny / stock.adobe.com
At this stage, the terrorist trail is ruled out. No individual has yet been arrested.
Danger in Brussels. Four people were injured, one seriously, on Wednesday evening during a shooting on a major shopping avenue in Brussels, police in the Belgian capital said. The perpetrator(s) of the shooting were already on the run when the police intervened after being called around 7:30 p.m., police spokesperson Ilse Van de Keere told AFP.
«At this stage there is no evidence to suggest that this is a terrorist act.“, she stressed. A hypothesis also ruled out “at this stage» by the prosecution. “According to the first elements of the investigation, the facts could be part of a settling of scores», Underlined the Brussels prosecutor’s office in the evening. The Belgian capital has seen an increase in incidents of violence linked to drug trafficking for at least two years. For one of the four injured, the prognosis is in jeopardy, according to the same source. No identity was given.
Security perimeter
The shots were fired on Avenue de la Toison d’Or, a generally busy shopping street, near a shopping mall housing many major brands. The gallery was evacuated, according to Belgian media. A security perimeter was set up, and traffic was partially blocked on the main avenue.
Images from Belgian television showed a large deployment of police cars and ambulances at the start of the evening. Belgium is currently placed at level 3 (out of four possible) of the terrorist threat, considered serious. On October 16 in Brussels, a radicalized Tunisian murdered two Swedish football fans with a weapon on the evening of a Belgium-Sweden match. He was shot dead the next day by the police. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.
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