Brussels gunman who killed two Swedes dies after being shot by police

A 45-year-old Tunisian gunman suspected of killing two Swedish football fans in Brussels died on Tuesday after being shot by police in a cafe, Belgium authorities said, while Sweden’s prime minister called for stronger EU border security.

The attacker, who identified himself as a member of Islamic State and claimed responsibility in a video posted online, is suspected of killing two Swedish nationals and wounding a third in central Brussels on Monday night.

“The perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels has been identified and died,” Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden posted on X, hours after Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called Monday’s shooting a brutal “terrorist attack”.

The shooting came at a time of heightened security concerns in some European countries linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, though a Belgian federal prosecutor said there was no evidence that the attacker had any link to the renewed conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants.

In August, Sweden raised its terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of an increase in threats against Swedes at home and abroad after Koran burnings outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a news conference on Tuesday that security should be beefed up and Sweden and the EU needed better border controls.

“I understand that many Swedes are afraid and angry,” Kristersson said, adding: “This is a time for more security, we can’t be naive.”

The suspected attacker, who unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium in November 2019 and was living in the country illegally, was known to Belgian police in connection with people smuggling, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said earlier on Tuesday.

In a video on social media, the suspected gunman called himself Abdesalem Al Guilani.

Belgium’s Verlinden said earlier that she could not rule out that he had had accomplices.

The gunman fled the scene after the shooting on Monday as a football match between Belgium and Sweden was about to start, triggering a massive manhunt and prompting Belgium to raise the terrorism alert in its capital to its highest level.

“The perpetrator targeted specifically Swedish supporters who were in Brussels to attend a Red Devils soccer match. Two Swedish compatriots passed away. A third person is recovering from severe injures,” de Croo said.

Belgium was hosting Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifying match. The match was abandoned at halftime.

SECURITY ALERT

Belgium has increased the police presence in the capital, particularly for Swedish people and institutions, and warned the public to be extra vigilant and avoid unnecessary travel.

“Let’s stay united in this terrible challenge of these terrorist attacks. We will never be intimated by terrorism,” De Croo said.

Armed police stood guard on Tuesday outside the suspect’s apartment in the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek while investigators gathered evidence.

De Croo posted on social media that Belgium was “now making sure the Swedish soccer fans can travel back home safely”.

Sweden’s Sapo security police said they were in contact with international counterparts.

“We are in a serious situation … Sweden has (over time) ended up in an increasingly clear focus of violent Islamist extremism,” a Sapo spokesperson said in a statement.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Europe was “shaken”. France is deploying 7,000 extra troops on to its streets after a teacher was fatally stabbed on Friday in an attack Macron condemned as “barbaric Islamic terrorism”.

Video footage of the Brussels attack posted on the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper website showed a man in an orange jacket on a scooter at a street intersection with a rifle first firing five shots, then following people fleeing into a building before firing again.

The newspaper said on Tuesday that police were looking for an accomplice who filmed the attack.

According to a media transcript of the video message recorded by the self-declared perpetrator, the attacker said he had killed Swedes to take revenge in the name of Muslims.

The European Commission, which is based in Brussels, has urged staff to work from home. Some schools were closed.

Belgium has been the target of several Islamist attacks over recent years, the deadliest being the 2016 attack on Brussels airport and the city’s metro, in which 32 people died.

Several of the Islamist gunmen who targeted Paris in a 2015 attack that killed 130 people were Belgian or living in Brussels.