[1/7]People work at a shooting range as Belgian police secure the area, in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2023. Portal/Johanna Geron LICENSES
BRUSSELS, Oct 16 (Portal) – Two people of Swedish nationality were shot dead in Brussels, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reported on Monday.
The newspaper said it was likely they were two football fans. Belgium hosts Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifier on Monday evening.
A police spokesman confirmed that two people had been killed in a shooting near the center of the Belgian capital, but declined to provide further details.
A spokesman for the Brussels public prosecutor’s office handling the case also declined to provide details about the victims or possible motives.
Video footage published on the website of the newspaper Het Laaste Niews showed a man in an orange jacket on a scooter at a street intersection with a rifle, first firing two shots, then three more, then running into a building, firing two more shots, walking away and Again took a few steps back and shoot again.
According to a Belgian newspaper, a witness said the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar” before the shots were fired.
(This story has been corrected in paragraph 3 to say that police confirmed that two people were killed in the shooting.)
Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels. Editing by Hugh Lawson and Matthew Lewis
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab