Police to display arsenal seized after shooting

Belgian police are today expected to display guns, ammunition and explosives seized after a motorway chase ended in a fatal shootout with a man suspected of terrorist links. Police shot dead the man, of Algerian origin, after he opened fire on them yesterday afternoon on the A8 linking Brussels and Tournai. They had been investigating him following a tip-off from French authorities and had already linked him to one recent robbery and moved in to arrest him after receiving information that he might be planning another crime.

In a statement today, French interior minister Manuel Valls praised Belgium for its cooperation in anti-terrorism operations. The man was a known figure in the Brussels criminal underworld, said Tournai prosecutor Marie-Claude Maertens, the Belga news agency reported. When police moved in to arrest him, he refused repeated calls to stop and then drove at police officers, opening fire at them. The police fired back and fatally wounded him, Maertens added. The federal prosecutor’s office told reporters that Belgian investigators had opened their investigation into the 30-year-old in response to two French requests for information about him last year. French investigators had said they suspected he belonged to a criminal gang with terrorist ties, and the Belgian investigation established that he had been buying military equipment including weapons, bullet-proof clothing and telescopic sights. Police also linked him to a robbery at a restaurant in Brussels last Thursday during which shots were fired.

After the motorway shootout, police searched the man’s home in Anderlecht and found weapons, ammunition and explosives. They will display the arsenal today. Officers also arrested a woman and were questioning her last night, Belga reported. Valls said he had spoken to his Belgian counterpart, Joelle Milquet, after the shooting and praised Belgium for its “determination to pursue bilateral cooperation in the long and difficult struggle against terrorism”. 

(AFP)