Police in Belgium say two people killed in Brussels shooting

Police cordon off an area where a shooting took place in the center of Brussels, on October 16, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Two people were killed during a shooting in Brussels on Monday evening and the suspect was on the run, the Belgian capital’s prosecutor’s office said.

The alleged gunman in a fluorescent orange jacket fled the scene after using an automatic rifle, according to a video shared by Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

A video claiming responsibility for the shooting was circulating on social media, in which a man speaks Arabic, a source close to the case said.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office told AFP that an investigation had been opened but did not speculate on the gunman’s motive.

The federal prosecutor in charge of terrorism cases was probing whether there was any possible terrorist motivation for the attack.

The shooting took place in the capital’s northern districts. Police had been alerted to the incident after 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).