Two officers were stabbed with a knife around 19.15 on Thursday near the Brussels-North railway station. The dead officer would have been stabbed in the neck. The other officer was taken to the hospital.
The offender was also taken to hospital after being shot in the leg and abdomen. There he died.
The motive is not yet known, but police are investigating whether there is a link to terrorism. According to witnesses, the offender shouted “Allahoe akbar“, which means ‘God is the greatest’.
The man, who was staying illegally in Belgium, reportedly showed up at a police station in Brussels earlier in the day. There he would say he wanted to kill the police officers. Police questioned the man, but then let him go, he reports HLN.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo expressed his condolences to the officer’s closest relatives. Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden speaks of “a terrible tragedy and heartbreaking news”.
