In the political center of Brussels on the doorstep of the EU Commission, a knife attacker injured three people, one of them seriously. Initial indications point to a psychiatric illness. Police officers can quickly render the perpetrator harmless in the metro station.
Shocking moment in the EU district in Brussels: Exactly at the end of the working day, three people are injured in an attack in a busy subway station. A man is said to have attacked her with a knife. According to police, one of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries and two others suffered minor injuries. As can be seen in photos, rescue workers treated a blood-smeared young man right in front of the main entrance of the EU Commission, the seat of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The background to the fact was initially unclear.
As a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Brussels said, there was no evidence of terrorism. The perpetrator was arrested in the subway station, as a dpa reporter observed on site. A journalist from the AFP news agency reported that several plainclothes police officers ran to a platform at the station. A woman asked passers-by to turn back by pointing out a man armed with a knife. According to a source familiar with the case, the detainee is "already known to authorities for a psychiatric history."
The man, wearing a striped T-shirt, was lying on his stomach in the entryway, hands behind his back, while a police officer knelt on him. Emergency services with dogs shielded the scene. A few minutes earlier, passers-by had shouted: "He has a knife," as a dpa reporter heard at the station shortly before 6 p.m.
The Schuman station is right between important EU institutions and is used by many EU employees. The EU Commission, the Council of the European Union and the Foreign Service of the EU border directly on the station. In the evening, Brussels Mayor Philippe Close wrote on Twitter: "Knife attack in the Schuman station". Good cooperation between the police led to a quick arrest. EU Council President Charles Michel thanked the emergency services and expressed his condolences to the victims. As the Brussels transport company announced on Twitter, local public transport in the area around the Schumann stop was partially stopped due to the police operation.
