A 29-year-old police officer has died after he was stabbed in the Brussels municipality of Schaarbeek on Thursday evening. A second police officer aged 23 was injured in the attack and has been taken to hospital. Their assailant was shot by another police officer and has been arrested. The Brussels Judicial Authorities say that earlier in the day the knifeman had gone to a police station in Evere (Brussels) and requested psychiatric help.
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29-year-old policeman stabbed to death in Brussels by man that had asked for psychiatric help just hours earlier
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The stabbing took place in the Aarschottstraat in Schaarbeek, next to Brussels North Railway Station. The assailant was shot by colleagues of the police officers that he had attacked. He was taken to hospital and has since been arrested. The police officer that died had been stabbed in the neck. The incident took place at around 7:15pm.
In a statement the Brussels North Local Poilce Service said "One of our patrols was attacked by a man with a knife. They requested reinforcements. An officer that came to assist used his firearm to nutralise the attacker. The Brussels Judicial Authorities has been informed of what happened”.
Terrorist motive?
The investigation has been handed over to the Federal Judicial Authorities and this could point to there being a suspicion that the attack had terrorism as its motive.
Some witnesses report the attacker having shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great in Arabic). The attacker is also one of the names included on the threat level analysis group OCAD’s list of “potentially violent extremists”.
OCAD said on Thursday evening that the terror threat level in Belgium will remain at Level 2, which means that the risk of an attack “not likely”.
Psychiatric help
The motive for the attack has yet to be confirmed. However, the Brussels Judicial Authorities have said that the assailant went to a police station in Evere on Thursday morning.
He made some “incoherent remarks” and spoke of his “hate towards the police”. The man asked for psychiatric help and the police contacted a magistrate to initiate proceedings to put him under psychiatric observation. However, this was not done as because the man had requested psychiatric help himself he didn’t comply with the legal terms necessary for him to be put under psychiatric observation by the Judicial Authorities.
The police took the man to the Saint-Luc University Hospital in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe where he was admitted. However, he left the hospital just a few hours later.