The man who is suspected of having shot dead two Swedes and injured another in central Brussels has been shot by police, several Belgian media reports.
According to media reports, the suspected perpetrator was shot early Tuesday morning in a cafe in connection with a police intervention in Schaerbeek. Something that was confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden.
This is what we know about the perpetrator
In pictures from the shooting in Brussels, a man in an orange jacket and white motorcycle helmet can be seen getting off a scooter and opening fire.
The suspected terrorist has been identified as 45-year-old Abdelsalem L, a resident of Brussels. The man who comes from Tunisia is said to have had his asylum application rejected in Belgium in 2020.
A video was published on social media during the evening showing Abdelsalem L dressed in similar clothes. In the video he speaks Arabic. He claims to belong to the terrorist movement IS and to be out to “revenge Muslims”.
In the video message, he talks about killing Swedes.
In Tunisia, he has previously been accused of terrorist crimes, several sources for the public service company state RTBF. The man now lives in Schaerbeek in Brussels, a neighborhood known for being where many of the IS fighters who were radicalized in Belgium and later traveled to Syria came from. According to the newspaper, the man must also have been radicalized.
TV4 Nyheterna has not been able to confirm that it is the suspected perpetrator who is seen on the film.
He has also previously been accused of crimes in his home country, says Belgium’s Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, at the press conference. But not terrorist crimes.
The Belgian prime minister described the killing as a sign of the “madness of terrorism”.
– We will never give in to terrorism, says De Croo at the press conference and continues:
– This is a fight that we are fighting together with our Swedish friends.
Abdelsalem L is said to have targeted Swedes in particular, according to the Belgian public prosecutor’s office.
According to Hans Brun, Belgium is one of the countries in Europe where there is the highest risk of terrorist acts.
– It is one of the countries, along with France, that has the biggest problem with jihadist terrorism, which this person seems to want to be associated with. That something like this happens in Brussels is therefore not unexpected, he tells the news agency TT.
– They have had similar attacks in the past, carried out by lone actors against different targets.
Had liked the Police in Dalarna on Facebook
The Facebook page that may be connected to the suspected perpetrator was shut down at 9 p.m. On Facebook, among other things, he had liked the Police in Dalarna. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, even an account on Tiktok can be linked to the suspect. There he follows a large account that has several times spread conspiracy theories about Sweden and that Swedish social services would kidnap Muslim children.