A knife-wielding man has been shot dead in the center of Brussels after authorities said he attacked a group of soldiers.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed the soldiers shot and killed the man in the Belgian capital. The incident is being treated as a terrorist attack.
The man shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic) twice while carrying out the attack, according to the federal prosecutor’s office spokeswoman, Esther Natus.
“We do consider it a terror attack,” AP quoted Natus as saying, adding that the suspect had been neutralized.
“With the identity that we currently have, it is a 30-year-old man who is not known for terrorist activities,” Natus stated earlier.
The incident took place about 20:15 local time (18:15 GMT). Belgian prosecutors said that the attacker is alive but in critical condition.
The soldiers were lightly wounded in the attack. One was cut in the face, while the other suffered an injury to the hand.
Belgium’s anti-terrorism Crisis Center tweeted that the situation was under control.
The attacker was known to police for his earlier involvement in “minor offenses,” according to Flemish broadcaster VRT.
According to RTBF, the attacker was a Somalian man.
Large numbers of police officers were deployed to the scene, which was cordoned off. The mayor of Brussels and the federal prosecutor also arrived at the scene.
The Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, expressed “all our support to our soldiers” in a Twitter post. “Our security services stay vigilant and we monitor the situation closely,” he said.
The attacker was known to police for his earlier involvement in “minor offenses,” according to Flemish broadcaster VRT.
