A man suspected of killing two Swedes in a street attack in Brussels on Monday evening was fatally injured in a police operation on Tuesday morning.
• Also read: Terrorist attack in Brussels, two Swedes killed, gunman on the run
“The perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels has been identified and has died,” said Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden on X (ex-Twitter) and praised the work of the intelligence and security services.
The suspect, who has been actively searched for since Monday evening, was a radicalized Tunisian staying illegally in Belgium, according to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who denounced an attack of “utter cowardice.”
The operation took place in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek, where a building was searched during the night.
A protest video message was posted on social networks in which a man “posed as an attacker and said he was inspired by the Islamic State,” according to the federal prosecutor responsible for terrorism cases.
“Terrorism will never win,” Alexander De Croo said during a morning press conference, speaking of an attack “with a weapon of war.”
The attack, which left two Swedish fans dead, occurred shortly after 7pm (5pm GMT) on Monday near Place Sainctelette, not far from the city centre, a few hours before a European Championship qualifier. -2024 football match between Belgium and Sweden at Roi Baudouin Stadium.
According to the first information, the attacker aimed an automatic weapon at her and a taxi driver who was “seriously injured but out of danger,” said the Prime Minister.
In the evening, the national crisis center was activated and the terrorist threat in the Brussels region was raised to level 4, which is considered “very serious” – maximum level – and in the rest of the region to level 3 (“severe”).
Due to this increase, unprecedented in Brussels since the wave of jihadist attacks in 2015-2016, European schools and certain Flemish institutions in the capital remained closed on Tuesday morning.
The suspect was portrayed by the media as Abdesalem L., 45 years old.
Asylum application rejected
According to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, he had been convicted in Tunisia “of common law crimes” but had not been charged with terrorist endangerment. His asylum application in Belgium was rejected in 2020.
The attack was condemned by several European leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron complained of an “Islamist terrorist attack”. France has announced that it will tighten its border controls.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said he was “devastated” by the attack, which left two Swedish supporters dead.
The Belgium-Sweden game was canceled at half-time when the score was 1-1, and around 30,000 spectators had to wait on site for several hours for security reasons.
The stadium was gradually evacuated from 11:45 p.m. (21:45 GMT) and Swedish fans were escorted to the airport to return to their country.
In the protest video, “the Swedish nationality of the victims is mentioned as a likely motive for the crime,” said a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Eric Van Duyse.
Sweden, whose image had significantly deteriorated in the Muslim world this summer after several Koran desecrations approved on its territory, decided on August 17 to raise the terrorist alert level, believing that the threat of attacks “will continue for a long time ” become.
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Belgium has already been the target of several attacks by the Islamic State terrorist militia.
The deadliest occurred on March 22, 2016, when Brussels was hit by a double suicide attack at Zaventem airport and on the subway in the middle of the European Quarter. There were 35 deaths.
This attack was carried out by a jihadist cell controlled from Syria, which was already behind the attacks on November 13, 2015 in France (130 dead).