There was no immediate official confirmation of his death.
Brussels:
A 45-year-old Tunisian suspected of killing two Swedish football fans in Brussels died after being shot by police in a café on Tuesday, Belgian media reported.
The man, who was shot in the chest, died in hospital from his injuries, media said. There was no immediate official confirmation of his death.
The shooting comes at a time of heightened security concerns in some European countries linked to the Israeli-Hamas conflict, although a Belgian federal prosecutor said there was no evidence the attacker had any connection with the recent renewed conflict between Israel and Palestinians militants.
Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said earlier that the wounded man was suspected of being the shooter. She also said she could not rule out that he had accomplices.
Two Swedish nationals were shot dead and a third was injured in central Brussels on Monday evening. A man who identified himself as a member of Islamic State claimed responsibility in a video posted online.
The suspect fled the scene after the shooting as a football match between Belgium and Sweden was about to start. This led to a massive manhunt and prompted Belgium to raise its terror alert to the highest level.
“The weapon used to commit the attacks was found this morning at the place where the man was arrested in (the Brussels sub-municipality) Schaarbeek. This increases the chance that the perpetrator has been arrested,” Verlinden told VRT.
“We check fingerprints to be 100% sure.”
Federal prosecutors said they could not yet confirm the identity of the person shot, but the mayor of the Belgian capital, Philippe Close, told BFM TV: “It appears that the suspect has indeed been neutralized.”
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called the shooting on Monday a brutal “terrorist attack”.
“Last night three people left for what should have been a wonderful football party. Two of them died in a brutal terrorist attack,” De Croo told a press conference.
“The perpetrator specifically targeted Swedish supporters who were in Brussels to attend a Red Devils football match. Two Swedish compatriots have died. A third person is recovering from serious injuries,” De Croo said.
Belgium hosted Sweden on Monday evening in the qualifying match for the 2024 European Championship. The match was stopped at halftime.
The country has raised the security alert status of its capital to the highest level, with increased police presence, especially for Swedish people and institutions, and has warned the public to be extra vigilant and avoid unnecessary travel.
A man who identified himself as a member of Islamic State claimed responsibility in a video posted online.
SAFETY CONCERNS
The attacker, who unsuccessfully applied for asylum in Belgium in November 2019, was known to the police in connection with human smuggling, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told a press conference.
Sweden’s SAPO security police, which raised its terrorism alert to the second highest level in August and warned of an increase in threats against Sweden at home and abroad, said it was in contact with their international counterparts.
“We are in a serious situation… Sweden has (over time) found itself in an increasingly clear focus of violent Islamist extremism,” a Sapo spokesperson said in a statement.
The suspected gunman, who called himself Abdesalem Al Guilani, claimed in a video on social media that he was a fighter for Allah.
Video footage of the attack, posted on the Het Laatste Nieuws website, showed a man in an orange jacket on a scooter at an intersection with a gun, first firing five shots and then following people fleeing into a building before firing again.
The newspaper said on Tuesday that police were looking for an accomplice who filmed the attack.
According to a media transcript of the video message recorded by the self-confessed perpetrator, he said he killed Sweden to take revenge on behalf of Muslims.
The European Commission, based in Brussels, has urged staff to work from home. Some schools were closed.
Belgium has been the target of several Islamist attacks in recent years. The deadliest was the 2016 attack on Brussels airport and the city’s metro, which killed 32 people.
Several of the Islamist gunmen who attacked Paris in 2015 in an attack that killed 130 people were Belgian or lived in Brussels.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
