A Tunisian gunman suspected of killing two Swedish football fans in Brussels died on Tuesday after being shot by police in a cafe, hours after an attack which Sweden’s prime minister said showed Europe must bolster security to protect itself.
The 45-year-old, who identified himself as a member of the Islamic State terror group and claimed responsibility in a video posted online, is also suspected of wounding another Swedish national in his attack in central Brussels on Monday evening.
“This is a time for more security, we can’t be naive,” Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson told a news conference in Stockholm, calling for stricter border controls in Europe. “These terrorists want to scare us into obedience and silence. That will not happen,” he said.
The shooting came at a time of heightened security concerns across much of Europe linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, but prosecutors said the gunman appeared motivated more by Koran burnings in Sweden.
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 burnings outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.
Belgian chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said early indications pointed toward the gunman operating alone, rather than being part of a broad network, although two people were brought in for questioning.
Police found an ArmaLite AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a bag of clothing in the cafe where he was discovered on Tuesday morning. Two handguns and a knife were found very close to his apartment, Mr Van Leeuw said.
Video footage of the attack showed a man in an orange jacket on a scooter at a street intersection with a rifle following people fleeing into a building and firing at them.
“I saw the assailant enter the building and shoot twice towards the man – the man fell to the ground. I saw him fall because I was just nearby,” said a witness, who identified himself as Souleymane. “I stayed there, I was frozen, I couldn’t move. I’m still shivering because of what happened.”
According to a media transcript of the video message recorded by the self-declared perpetrator, the attacker said he had killed Swedes to avenge Muslims.
The victims were a man aged about 70 from the Stockholm region, and a man aged about 60 who lived abroad, Sweden’s foreign ministry said, adding that the injured man, also around 70, was still in hospital.
The Brussels attack came just days after a teacher was fatally stabbed in northern France in an attack that President Emmanuel Macron condemned as “barbaric Islamic terrorism”. “All European states are vulnerable,” Mr Macron said on Tuesday, speaking of a “resurgence of Islamist terrorism”.
In a video on social media, the suspected gunman called himself Abdesalem Al Guilani.
He unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium in 2019, was living in the country illegally and was known to Belgian police in connection with helping smuggle people into Britain, justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said.
Italian sources said he had arrived in Italy’s Lampedusa island in 2011, moved later to Sweden, but was expelled from there and returned to Italy before his arrival in Belgium.
Mr Van Quickenborne said it was difficult to expel illegal migrants because certain north African countries were unwilling to take them back.
The suspect fled the scene after the shooting as a football match between Belgium and Sweden was about to start, triggering a manhunt and prompting Belgium to raise the terrorism alert in its capital to its maximum level. It returned to the second-highest level late on Tuesday.
“The perpetrator targeted specifically Swedish supporters who were in Brussels to attend a Red Devils soccer match,” Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said, calling it a “brutal terrorist attack”.
Belgium was hosting Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifying match. The match was abandoned at halftime.
The European Commission, which is based in Brussels, 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. – Reuters