Brussels shooting of Swedish football fans
At about 7pm on 16 October 2023, a gunman on a scooter opened fire with an automatic rifle on Boulevard d'Ypres in central Brussels, killing two Swedish men and seriously injuring a third. The attack happened about 5km from the stadium where Belgium was playing Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifier, and the match was abandoned at half-time. Belgium raised its terror threat to level four, the highest (BBC).
In a video he filmed after the shooting, the gunman said he had killed Swedes. Sweden's prosecutor's office said it believed he was inspired by Islamic State (BBC). Reports identified the man as Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian whose asylum application in Belgium had been rejected and who had been ordered to leave the country (The Guardian). Police shot him in a café in Schaerbeek on the morning of 17 October, and he died in hospital. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called it "a harrowing act of terrorism". Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: "Everything suggests this is a terror attack targeted at Sweden and Swedish citizens" (BBC).
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