Two People Shot Dead In Central Brussels, Lone Gunman Still At Large – Local Media Reports
16.10.2023 - 20:29
/ deadline.com
Two people were shot dead by a lone gunman in the Belgian capital of Brussels on Monday evening in a developing situation, according to local media reports.
Images circulating on social media show an armed man dressed in a florescent orange jacket close to the city’s Place Sainctelette shooting indiscriminately as people run to escape.
The killer is still at large with other images show him riding off on a scooter.
Brussels Mayor Philippe Close said in a short statement around 3.20 pm ET that police services had mobilized “to ensure security in and around the capital”. Close said he was at the country’s crisis centre with Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden and Brussels Police Chief Michel Goovaerts.
There were reports that both victims were wearing Swedish football shirts. Sweden is playing Belgium this evening in a qualifying match for the Euro 2024 championship, with the match kicking off as planned at 2.45pm ET.
Europe has been on high alert in recent days in the wake of the terror attacks on Southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, which killed more than 1,300 people and also resulted in the taking of 199 hostages.
The attacks have enflamed tensions in the Middle East and beyond as Israel retaliates with the blockade and bombing of Gaza, which has killed more than 2,700 people so far.
The reverberations have been felt in Europe and North America.
A teacher was stabbed to death by a lone attacker in a school in northern France on Friday in an incident that is being investigated as terror related.
There have also been a reports of a rise in antisemitic acts in Europe, while a six-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in his home in Illinois by his landlord, who also critically wounded the