Drama in Brussels as car pursue is followed by bomb hoax, World news, The Guardian
Drama in Brussels as car pursue is followed by bomb hoax
Driver of vehicle, arrested after leaping a crimson light, claimed car contained explosives, but was later described as ‘mentally unwell’
A police car blocks a road in the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels. Photograph: Olivier Matthys/AP
Drama in Brussels as car pursue is followed by bomb hoax
Driver of vehicle, arrested after hopping a crimson light, claimed car contained explosives, but was later described as ‘mentally unwell’
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Tuesday eight August two thousand seventeen Eighteen.48 BST Very first published on Tuesday eight August two thousand seventeen Legal.Legitimate BST
Belgian police shot at a vehicle during a pursue through Brussels before arresting the driver and clearing the area after he falsely claimed that his car contained explosives.
The driver, who was unarmed, was arrested at the scene. He was later described by the Belgian prosecutors office as mentally unwell. “It’s a mentally unstable person,” a spokeswoman for prosecutors said. “The military did not find any explosive in his vehicle.” The spokeswoman added said that the suspect was from Rwanda and was not known to have a police record.
The incident began at about 5pm on Tuesday evening when local police chased a vehicle that had gone through at least one crimson light in Anderlecht, west of Brussels. Officers fired their guns at the vehicle’s wheels after it became stuck in traffic and the driver reversed into a police car.
The car was ultimately stopped in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, an area with a troubling history of links to terrorists inspired by Isis, when it struck a 2nd police car that had been called to the scene. A police spokesman said: “We got the driver out, and he instantaneously told us that there were explosives inwards.”
A large security perimeter was established around the car, trapping four hundred to five hundred people in their homes.
Two managed explosions were heard by witnesses after both the army and bomb disposition units attended the scene as a precaution, but no explosives were found. The strongly protected team could be seen removing plastic bags containing some items from the car, which was surrounded by a number of police vehicles.
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A spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutors, Ine van Wymersch, said: “When the police arrested him, he claimed to have explosives, so not to take any risk, the army has been called in to check.”
Brussels has been on high alert since thirty two people were killed in suicide attacks in March 2016. Many suspects linked to those attacks and the November two thousand fifteen massacre in Paris lived in or regularly passed through Molenbeek.
In June, a man from Molenbeek of Moroccan descent was shot dead by a soldier as he attempted to set off a suitcase bomb containing pulverizes and gas bottles in Brussels’ central station. Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt later said that many lives had been saved by the technical failure of the device.