Two Swedish football supporters have been killed and another injured after a gunman opened fired on while they were on their way to the European Championships qualifier between Belgium and Sweden at the King Boudewijn Stadium in Brussels on Tuesday evening.
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Two Swedish football fans killed and another injured by radicalised gunman
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At around 7:15pm a man wearing a florescent orange coat starting shooting at a group of Swedish supporters that had just go out of a taxi. The gunman had been following the taxi on a scooter. A total of a least 8 shots were fired. One of the victims sought sanctuary in a nearby building but was followed by the gunman and shot again.
Known to the authorities
The gunman was a 45-year-old Tunisian that was in Belgium illegally. In November 2019 he applied for asylum in Belgium and almost a year later his application was refused and he was ordeded to leave the country. Despite this he was still in Belgium and lived in the Brussels municipality of Schaarbeek.
On Tuesday evening shortly after the shootings a video was published on social media by a man claiming that he had shot three Swedes and that he had done so out of revenge. The man also claimed that he is a member of IS.
The suspect was known to the security services. In 2016 the authorities received unconfirmed reports from a foreign police service that he was radicialised. However, it is not clear if he was already in the country then.
Earlier, this year he threatened a resident of an asylum centre in Antwerp Province. His victim claimed that the man convictions for terrorism in his home country. However, later the Tunisian authorities informed Belgium that the man had been convicted for other offences that were not terrorism-related.
Terror-threat level 4
After the attack the terrorism threat level in Brussels was raised to level 4. In the rest of the country terror threat level 3 was applicable. Level 4 is in force when the threat is “very serious” and an attack is “imminent”.
Level 3 indicates a “serious” threat level and that an attack is “likely”. At the King Boudewijn Stadium the match ended at half time after the Swedish team said that they no longer wished to play.
Supporters were kept inside the stadium for around two hours after the match as aborted. The Swedish fans were taken by coach to hotels. The two metro stations that are nearest to the stadium were closed as a security measures.