Reports claim the man who killed two Swedish football fans on Monday was injured in a shootout with officers
Police cordon off the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels after a gunman killed two Swedish nationals © Dursun Aydemir / Anadolu via Getty Images
Brussels police have detained a suspect believed to have killed two Swedish football fans in an Islamic extremist attack, local media have reported. He was shot in the chest during a firefight, after an hours-long manhunt.
The man was cornered in the Schaerbeek commune in the northeastern of the Belgian capital, news website Sudinfo reported on Tuesday morning. He was apprehended alive and rushed to hospital, and reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest in the ambulance before being resuscitated. The authorities have not yet shared details on the events.
The perpetrator targeted people attending a Euro 2024 qualifying match on Monday evening, resulting in the game being called off at half-time.
The assailant later injured a third person elsewhere in Brussels, according to the media outlet. Videos published online have shown a man wearing an orange jacket and riding a scooter, armed with an assault rifle.
READ MORE: Belgium declares ‘terror alert’ after two shot dead
In a video that the killer apparently recorded and posted online, he identified himself as Abdesalem Al Guilani, a supporter of the terrorist group Islamic State, (IS, formerly ISIS). He claimed that was avenging crimes against Muslims.
Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said the suspect was a 45-year-old Tunisian man who sought asylum in Belgium in November 2019. He was accused of people-smuggling and residing in the country illegally, the minister told a news conference on Monday.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has expressed his condolences to the Swedish people over the deaths of two of its nationals, and said the terrorist attack was fuelled by “blind hatred”.
