A man has been shot in the leg near the Clemenceau metro station in Brussels. His condition was initially described as critical but later as stabilised.
On February 5, a day earlier, two people had opened fire with Kalashnikov-style rifles at the same metro station in one shooting and two people were hit in another incident in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.
According to the Brussels police, the latest shooting took place at 3:35 am. The victim was rushed to the hospital but the suspected shooter was not apprehended.
At the time of writing, an investigation was ongoing, with magistrates, police researchers and ballistic experts looking into the case.
“The investigation is ongoing to clarify the exact circumstances of the facts. The investigation will have to determine whether there is a link to Wednesday’s shooting,” the Brussels prosecutor’s office said in a press release.
“In the interest of the investigation, we will not make any additional comments.”
On February 5, two people were seen firing Kalashnikov-style riles while travellers were at the Clemenceau metro station in the Brussels municipality of Anderlecht.
Both suspects, believed to be men, ran off into a metro tunnel. Special forces were rushed to the station but no suspects were found.
As a result of the manhunt, city subway traffic was severely disturbed for much of the day.
Following the incidents, the newly installed Belgian interior minister, Bernard Quintin, said on X: ” There is no place for violence in Brussels and our major cities. This has gone on long enough!
“This government will apply zero tolerance to all forms of crime.”
#Belgium 🇧🇪: Two gunmen carried out a shooting attack at Clemenceau station in the city of #Brussels (#Bruxelles).
Perpetrators seemingly armed with a possible #Romania-made 🇷🇴 'PM md. 65' assault rifle and an AR-15/M4 pattern carbine. pic.twitter.com/8GGjrYvGtY
— Alex Kennedy (@therealmindman) February 5, 2025
Julien Moinil, the new Brussels Public Prosecutor, said on the morning of February 6: “In just 24 hours, there have been three shootings — two in Anderlecht and one in Saint-Josse.
“This is completely unacceptable,” he stated on state broadcaster RTBF’s La Première programme.
“It is a shocking scene.”
“And of course, what shocks me even more are the victims. When we go to work or take the metro, we see weapons of war. There is even a bullet hole in the bedroom of a child in the street next door. I saw the picture myself.”
That was in reference to an incident in January 2023, where an 11-year-old girl died in what appeared to be a drug-related shooting in the Antwerp district of Merksem.
“So there was a family who woke up in the morning with a bullet hole in their child’s bedroom,” he said.
“A girl was murdered in Antwerp. How many deaths have to occur before there is a reaction befitting the gravity of the situation?”
According to Moinil, such incidents may be acts of retaliation between drugs gangs in territorial disputes.
He also referred to the shooting, at around 1.25 am on February 6, in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, in which two people were injured.
In that, one man reportedly presented himself with a gunshot wound to the leg at a police station nearby. The second victim was seriously injured and both were taken to the hospital.
The perpetrators reportedly made off in a dark car.
In recent years, drugs crime has increased in Brussels.
In 2024, there were a total of 89 shootings in the Brussels Capital Region, a sharp rise compared to the year before, when there were 43 reported.
Another brutal shooting in Brussels leaves two dead and two critically injured. https://t.co/hCnWPmtCW6
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 27, 2024
