Early on Tuesday, Belgian police searched for a shooter with alleged extremist intentions who had just brutally murdered two Swedes before vanishing into the night. He instilled such terror that police decided to cancel a football match between Sweden and Belgium and detain 35,000 spectators inside for many hours.
Eric Van Duyse, spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, said the investigation was centering on “a possible terrorist motivation for the shooting” after “a claim of responsibility was posted on social media.”
“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.
The anti-terror center in Belgium, said the terror alert in the capital was raised to its top rating of 4, meaning a “threat is extremely serious.” It previously stood at 2, which means the threat was average. The alert level or the rest of the country was raised to 2.
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“I have just offered my sincere condolences to @SwedishPM following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo De Croo said. He added on X, formerly known as Twitter, “As close partners the fight against terrorism is a joint one.”
As for the soccer match, Van Duyse said, “security measures were urgently taken to protect the Swedish supporters” at the game in the national stadium not far from the schooting.
Over two hours after the game was suspended, a message flashed on the big stadium screen saying, “Fans, you can leave the stadium calmy.” Stand after stand emptied onto the streets filled with police as the search for the gunman continued.