2023-10-17 02:19:37
The attack occurred shortly following 7:00 p.m. near Place Sainctelette, in Brussels, a few hours before a Euro-2024 football qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden at the Roi-Baudouin stadium.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said:devastated” by this attack which cost the lives of two Swedish supporters.
According to initial information, the attacker targeted them with an automatic weapon as well as a taxi driver, who was injured but is out of danger.
“Devastated”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen blasted a “abject attentat“, while French President Emmanuel Macron deplored an “Islamist terrorist attack”. France announced a strengthening of its border controls.
The Belgium-Sweden match was stopped at half-time, around 9:30 p.m.
But the approximately 35,000 spectators at the Roi-Baudouin stadium were then held back for more than two hours as a security measure. The enclosure was gradually evacuated, and the Swedish supporters were escorted to the airport to return to their country.
On the social network X (formerly Twitter), the Belgian Prime Minister presented his condolences to his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson following “cowardly attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels“. He called for unity in “the fight once morest terrorism“.
“JI am currently with the Ministers of Justice and the Interior at the national crisis center. We are monitoring the evolution of the situation and asking Brussels residents to be vigilant“added Mr. De Croo.
In the claim video, “the Swedish nationality of the victims is mentioned as a probable motivation for the act“, specified a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office, Eric Van Duyse.
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