A gunman claiming to be a member of ISIS opened fire on a group of Swedish football fans in Belgium killing two people.
The gunman opened fire at the men as they passed through Boulevard d’Ypres ahead of the Euro 2024 clash with Sweden on Monday night, October 16.
The men were wearing their national team’s jerseys and were on their way to the match at King Baudouin Stadium. A third person is said to be seriously injured.
The alleged attacker used the name ‘Slayem Slouma’ to boast about the two murders on Facebook, adding he sought to avenge the killing of a six-year-old US-Palestinian boy.
Speaking in Arabic, he celebrated the slaughter and said he committed them in the name of ISIS. The shooter remains at large.
Police confirmed that the man in the video, wearing an orange jacket, black scarf, yellow baseball hat, and heavy black beard – was the one they were searching for in relation to the attack.
The match between Belgium and Sweden was suspended, with players and fans locked inside the stadium. The country’s terror alert has been raised to a level 4, its highest.
Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports the gunman used an automatic rifle and fled the scene on his scooter.
He is reported to have said he was avenging the stabbing of six-year-old US-Palestinian boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, who was knifed to death in Plainfield, Illinois, on Saturday morning.
Wadea was stabbed 26 times and his mother, Hanaan Shahin, was stabbed over a dozen times, by a man allegedly screaming ‘You Muslims must die!’
Joseph Czuba, 71, is charged with murdering the boy.
The gunman was travelling on a moped, and was heard to shout ‘Allahu Akabar’ – Arab for God is the Greatest – by witnesses.
An investigating source said: ‘He was also screaming about carrying out a revenge attack. He was shooting at various people, and hit a number of them. This had all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack.’
The source said there was also a video circulating on social media in which the attacker explains having to ‘take revenge’ by killing three people from Sweden.
Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo urged civilians to be vigilant and said: ‘My deepest condolences to the relatives of the cowardly assassination attempt in Brussels’
‘I monitor developments together with the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs from the national crisis center.’
