A knifeman “released from psychiatric care” has been shot after stabbing a police officer “while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’” in the capital of Belgium on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
The attacker struck outside the central police station in Brussels at 5.30 a.m. local time before another policeman shot the assailant.
Witnesses told the Belgian newspaper DH that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and the paper reported the incident as a militant Islamist attack.
Police, however, have not confirmed that the attack was linked to Islamic militancy, and said the motive was under investigation.
“It is too early to say now what the motive was of the attacker. The investigation is underway,” a police spokeswoman said, according to Reuters.
The victim was stabbed in the neck and later transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The attacker was shot in the chest and seriously injured. He was later taken to hospital, the spokesperson said.
The attack took place on the second day of a state visit to Belgium by French President Emmanuel Macron. Later on Tuesday, Macron was expected to visit the Brussels district of Molenbeek, home of ISIS jihadists who carried out the 2015 Paris attacks that claimed the lives of 130 people.
“Police don’t know him as someone who was radicalized or a terrorist. He seems to have been in psychiatric care but was released a while ago,” Jambon told Radio Een, before adding that the incident was still being investigated.
Witnesses said a man with a knife “threw himself” at the two police officers in front of the central police station, Le Soir reported.
Police spokeswoman Ilse van de Keere told AFP a police officer was “stabbed and slightly wounded,” and then transported to hospital.
“His colleagues retaliated by firing shots at the attacker, who was subdued,” the spokeswoman said, and added that the suspect’s life was not in danger.
The spokeswoman would not confirm a local media report that the attacker had shouted “Allahu Akbar,” a phrase that has so far been attributed to the suspect by unnamed witnesses.
Justice Minister Koen Geens said investigators were exploring multiple avenues of inquiry, according to the Daily Mail, including possible links to extremist groups. Geens said that no motive had been established at this time.
Belgium, home to European Union institutions and NATO, has been on alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people at Brussels airport and on the city’s metro in 2016, although the national threat level was reduced to two from three on a four-point scale in January 2018.
