A gunman is on the run in Belgium after trying to force his car through the gates of a military barracks, prosecutors in the country have said.
Several shots were fired, but no one was hurt.
The man, wearing a balaclava, tried to enter the barracks in Flawinne, near the city of Namur, on Monday. After an exchange of fire the man fled, abandoning the car, prosecutors said.
“No one was hurt, it seems. The man is on the run,” a spokesman for prosecutors in Namur said. “If I look at it from an outsider’s point of view, it seems incomprehensible. Why would you attack a military barracks? There are plenty of weapons there to strike back.”
The newspaper La Dernière heure said officials suspected there might have been a bomb in the car and a bomb disposal squad has been dispatched. The paper added that the car had been found abandoned nearby.
Belgium foiled what authorities called a plot to attack police in January, killing two men in one of several raids against an Islamist group that officials said had been about to launch large-scale attacks.
Since then, soldiers have been guarding several sites across the country, such as the European commission headquarters, embassies and Jewish schools in the capital Brussels.
Belgium has been one of the largest recruiting bases per capita for foreign fighters travelling to join the Islamic State, and authorities have openly expressed alarm about what the recruits might do if they return home.
A preliminary report this month from a UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries estimated 500 people have been recruited from Belgium to fight in Iraq and Syria.
Reuters