Brussels gunman shot dead after Swedish football fans killed

Update from the Telegraph

Annelies Verlinden, the interior minister, said the terrorist died on the way to hospital in an ambulance. She said authorities were working to formally identify him through fingerprints.

Belgian police found the automatic rifle used in the attack on the suspect, she added. The identity of the man who was shot dead has not been released, but local media reports suggested it was the gunman.

From France 24

Belgian police early Tuesday arrested a suspected gunman thought to have who killed two Swedes with stunning viciousness.  The gunman, who is thought to have terrorist motives, created such fear in Brussels that authorities shut down a Belgium-Sweden soccer match and held 35,000 fans inside for several hours as a precaution.

Spokesman Eric Van Duyse told AFP officers “opened fire” as they apprehended the man in the Schaerbeek area of the city, but did not say if the suspect was wounded. Other reports say he was shot in the chest. 

He was shot in the chest during a stop and search as authorities scoured Belgium’s capital.

“This person claims to be inspired by Islamic State,” Van Duyse said. “The Swedish nationality of the victims was put forward as the probable motive.” Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level in August after a series of public Quran-burnings by an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden resulted in threats from Islamic militant groups.

“At this time, no element indicates a possible link with the Israeli-Palestinian situation,” Van Duyse said, offering scant relief on a continent where many nations have increased their vigilance for fear of attacks linked to the Israel-Hamas war.  Muslims never need a reason for their rage. 

Media reports aired amateur videos showing a man arriving on a scooter in an orange fluorescent vast, dropping the vehicle and immediately taking out a large weapon and opening fire on passersby. Apart from the two Swedes who were killed, a local taxi driver was hurt but his life was not in danger.  The attacker then picked up his scooter and sped off into the gathering darkness.  It wasn’t clear late last night whether these bits of film were events leading up to the murders or after them, so I didn’t link them. 

According to Reuters The attacker, who unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium in November 2019, was known to police over people smuggling and illegal residence in the country, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told a news conference earlier on Tuesday.  The suspected assailant, calling himself Abdesalem Al Guilani, claimed in a video on social media that he was a fighter for Allah.

He was named on Monday night as Abdesalem Lassoued, 45, from Tunisia, a failed asylum seeker who had been living illegally in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood of the Belgian capital.