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A suspect within the killing of two Swedish nationals in Brussels on Monday night, in what officers known as an act of terrorism, was fatally shot by the police on Tuesday morning after an in a single day search, the workplace of Belgium’s public prosecutor stated.
The suspect, a person whose identify was not launched, died in a hospital, the prosecutor’s workplace stated. A weapon was discovered on the scene after the person was shot, based on the inside minister.
Belgium’s justice minister, Vincent Van Quickenborne, stated on Tuesday that the suspect, a Tunisian man who was dwelling within the nation illegally, had been identified to the authorities for doable radicalization and prison exercise since 2016, however the authorities had not acted on mounting intelligence that he posed a menace.
The capturing in central Brussels on Monday night, earlier than a scheduled soccer match between Sweden and Belgium, was described as terrorism by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. It shocked the Belgian capital, which has a painful historical past of terrorist assaults. Islamic State militants carried out bombings there in 2016 that killed greater than 30 individuals and wounded tons of extra.
“I’ve simply supplied my honest condolences to @SwedishPM following tonight’s harrowing assault on Swedish residents in Brussels,” Mr. de Croo stated on X on Monday, referring to the Swedish prime minister. “Our ideas are with the households and mates who misplaced their family members. As shut companions the combat in opposition to terrorism is a joint one.”
The victims have been sporting Sweden soccer shirts and should have been getting ready to attend the sport at a stadium in northern Brussels. The sport was suspended after the capturing, however a number of hours handed earlier than followers on the stadium have been allowed to go away.
An unverified video of the assault circulating on social media confirmed a person in a white helmet and a high-visibility orange jacket pursuing and capturing at his victims, who ran right into a constructing, after which capturing them once more at nearer vary.
One other unverified video circulating on social media, shot in selfie mode, confirmed a person in a jacket similar to the one worn by the gunman within the different video, talking in Arabic and describing himself as an adherent of the Islamic State.
“So there was a declare through social media the place somebody says he’s the perpetrator, that he has sympathies for I.S., and what’s additionally vital, he mentions the Swedish nationality of these victims,” Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s workplace, advised the Belgian broadcaster VTM.
“For now, on the present stage of the investigation, there can be no relationship to the battle in Gaza,” Mr. Van Der Sypt added. The bloodshed in Israel and Gaza for the reason that Hamas assault of Oct. 7 has raised considerations in lots of international locations that sympathizers with one facet or the opposite would possibly perform violent acts.
Mr. Van Der Sypt, in feedback to the information company Belga, stated {that a} third man, a taxi driver, had been wounded within the assault however was being handled in a hospital and was out of hazard.
The menace stage in Brussels was raised after the assault, and France has tightened controls at its border with Belgium, France’s inside minister, Gérald Darmanin, stated.
Whereas the suspect’s identification was not formally launched, Belgian information shops recognized him as Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old man initially from Tunisia.
The Belgian authorities’ dealing with of the person’s actions was coming beneath nearer scrutiny on Tuesday after the acknowledgment that he had been identified to the police and even flagged for potential terrorist exercise seven years in the past.
Mr. Van Quickenborne, the justice minister, advised a information convention that the authorities had acquired an alert from a international police service in July 2016, claiming that the person was radicalized.
“There have been numerous stories like that on the time, dozens of stories of that nature per day,” Mr. Van Quickenborne stated. “That data was then investigated, and nothing additional could possibly be carried out with it.”
However the minister stated that the suspect had been on the authorities’ radar since that first crimson flag, for suspicions of human smuggling and for illegally dwelling in Belgium, amongst different issues. In June final 12 months, the minister stated, he had been flagged to a particular activity drive for suspicious conduct at a mosque, however that “didn’t set off any additional motion,” Mr. Van Quickenborne famous.
This 12 months, the minister added, the suspect was stated to have threatened a resident of an asylum middle on social media after the resident reported that the suspect had been convicted over terrorist actions in Tunisia.
The Belgian authorities have additionally did not thwart earlier terrorist threats. A number of of the Islamic State attackers who carried out the November 2015 assaults in Paris that killed greater than 100 individuals had been primarily based in Belgium and have been identified to the authorities.
The Belgian capital is house to the main establishments for the European Union in addition to NATO headquarters.
The European Fee, which employs 1000’s of individuals, urged staff after the assault to do business from home on Tuesday, and stated that it will hold the faculties and day care facilities for the workers’s kids closed.
In a put up on X, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, stated that “the guts of Europe is hit by violence.”
Koba Ryckewaert contributed reporting from Brussels, and Liam Stack from New York.
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