An assistant to a Swedish MEP sustained a gunshot wound during a shooting on a popular shopping street in the Belgian capital yesterday evening.
Here we go again.
Shooting on a major shopping street in the home of the EU, Brussels, Belgium, multiple people injured; Suspect on the loose. pic.twitter.com/j3awG7ExUZ
— Stan Voice of Wales (@StanVoWales) December 7, 2023
The woman who is an employee of the European Parliament is receiving treatment after the attack in which it was reported four people were injured.
The incident took place on Avenue de la Toison d’Or which is a popular shopping area.
Police Spokesperson Ilse Van de Keere said the incident took place at 7:30pm near the Toison d’Or Gallery and an Apple store, with reports saying the gunman had left the scene by the time police arrived.
Swedish EPP lawmaker Tomas Tobé said, “One of our employees has been injured in a shooting in Brussels. Terrible. The person in question is receiving care at the moment, the situation is not considered to be critical.”
En av våra medarbetare har blivit skadad i en skottlossning i Bryssel. Fruktansvärt. Personen i fråga får vård just nu, läget bedöms inte att vara kritiskt. Anhöriga till personen är underrättade.
— Tomas Tobé (@tomastobe) December 6, 2023
The manager of a cafe located inside the Toison d’Or Gallery said that around 20 people had taken refuge inside the shop including a female tourist who he said had a leg injury.
It was reported that police are not considering the attack an act of terrorism with the mayor of Ixelles, Christos Doulkeridis, saying the issue was more related to gangs.
In October two Swedish tourists were shot dead and a third seriously injured after a man named by the Belgian media as ‘Abdesalem’ launched an attack before being shot dead by Belgian police.
The victims were men in their 60s and 70s. The 45 year old Arabic speaking gunman made a video confession after the shooting in which he reportedly said he had to ‘kill Swedish’ people as he was fighting for ‘Allah’.
The BBC reported that the suspect was believed to be of Tunisian origin and to have been in Belgium illegally.
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Belgium is an amalgam of two regions. The Dutch speaking south and the french speaking north. The population comprises roughly 60% Dutch speakers and 40% french. In the 1960s the french speakers hit in the brilliant idea of importing french speakers from North Africa to boost their numbers. It apparently never occurred to them that their imported people would have a completely different background and culture to themselves. This failure is all the more remarkable as their next door neighbours the french had just left North Africa after a vicious war when atrocities were committing by both sides. It turns out that importing people with absolutely nothing in common with you is not a good idea. I wonder if any of our media/governance class know much about the recent history of Belgium. Perhaps that the wrong question. I should be asking if said class care about the future of Ireland.
It’s all too familiar James.
And Sweden itself is in the grip of gang violence and shootings and has the second highest gun crime rate in Europe, next to Albania. Many Albanians coming here. Meanwhile, Varadkar is ‘very very concerned’ about the lack of accomodatíon, only tents for migrants here now. The government has given supplementary benefit of €1.26 billion to the Dept of Integration 2023, most of it going to accomodation for refugees ‘who are fleeing the war in Ukraine’, while palliative care nurses report visiting cancer patients who cannot afford to heat their homes. Ukrainian refugees can go ‘home’ for Christmas from Dec 22 to Jan 5. I never heard of refugees going home on holidays before. Does that not invalidate the very concept of refugee?
I seen that about the cancer patients and I thought of the millions Leo is giving to poor countries to help them deal with climate changes. Couldn’t make it up.