Brussels has recorded 57 shootings in the first seven months of 2026, federal police figures show, putting the Belgian capital on course to match or exceed the worst year on record.
The incidents, spread across the region’s 19 municipalities, left two people dead and 21 wounded by July 31. Brussels registered 101 shootings in the whole of 2025, with eight killed and 43 injured, regional broadcaster BX1 reported.
The capital did not reach its 57th shooting of last year until mid-August, meaning 2026 is running roughly two weeks ahead of the record pace.
The first fatality of the year was a 50-year-old man shot in the rue du Moulin in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in January. The second man died in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean during the night of July 17-18.
Investigators suspect a link to the drug trade in both cases though neither judicial file has yet confirmed it.
Brussels Signal reported in April that eight of the 22 shootings recorded in the first quarter appeared connected to narcotics trafficking or turf wars between criminal groups.
The city’s drug trade is largely run by organised networks of migrant background, among them groups of Moroccan, Albanian and North African origin moving cocaine from the port of Antwerp into the capital.
Those networks recruit illegal migrants and minors as street dealers, lookouts and gunmen. Their precarious legal status makes them easier to control, while the senior figures often operate from abroad.
The violence reached the police themselves on August 21, when two masked men opened fire on a former police station in the rue Démosthène in Anderlecht and fled on an electric scooter.
The building was hit but nobody was hurt, the Brussels-Midi police zone said. Most services had already moved to new headquarters near Brussels-South railway station, though some departments still use the site.
Brussels public prosecutor Julien Moinil called the attack inadmissible and said it revealed a clear intention to destabilise the State. He has previously warned that any resident of the capital could become the victim of a shooting.
Belgian interior minister Bernard Quintin said he was deeply shocked and condemned the shooting. Local police chief Jürgen De Landsheer told broadcaster VRT it was probably a reprisal for police operations against dealers.
Most incidents remain concentrated in Anderlecht, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Schaerbeek, Saint-Gilles and the City of Brussels. Five months of the year still remain.
