A 20-year-old man carrying a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle was arrested on Thursday morning at Brussels-South station (Gare du Midi) by a joint police and army patrol.
The man was acting suspicions and appeared to be wanting to avoid a check by security, triggering the attention of the customs services.
In his baggage, they then found the loaded machine gun.
It was hidden in a heavy sports bag, HLN reported, covered under baby-and children clothing.
He was carrying thirty bullets with the war weapon.
The customs agents alerted the police and patrolling military in the station.
Belgian interior minister Bernard Quintin and Brussels regional minister-president Boris Dilliès both thanked the officers and used the arrest to argue that the extra station patrols should stay and be widened.
Local media RTL said mixed police-military teams, deployed in the capital’s stations since last week, stopped the man at Midi.
La Dernière Heure reported he was from France. He said he came from the French city of Lille, but he spoke bad French.
Officials described the weapon as a “war weapon” of Kalashnikov type. There has been no public claim of shots fired, injuries, or a terrorism inquiry.
Prosecutors have not yet issued a detailed statement.
Quintin wrote on X: “Thank you to the services for their rapid and decisive action. This shows that reinforcing patrols in stations and metros with the help of our soldiers is crucial and must be continued, even extended. That is what I am arguing for in government.”
Dilliès posted that the patrol “neutralised an individual armed with a Kalashnikov” at Midi and that the intervention “confirms the need for the collective effort I initiated to strengthen security in our stations. It must be maintained, even extended.”
Midi is Belgium’s busiest international rail hub, offering Eurostar, Thalys/Eurostar services to Paris, and local metro lines.
However, it sits in a district long associated with drug violence.
Brussels had more than 100 drug-related shootings in 2025 and more than 69 so far this year.
Kalashnikovs have featured in attacks near Midi, including the February 2025 Clemenceau metro shooting a short walk from the station.
In August, two minors were held in Saint-Gilles with Kalashnikovs after a tip near Square Jacques Franck, and a police station in Anderlecht was sprayed with automatic fire.
The new mixed patrols were sold as a response to the most recent shooting incidents.
Thursday’s arrest is the first high-profile catch those teams have been given in public.
Last Friday, Brussels chief prosecutor Julien Moinil told a press conference that politics had given him “no reaction, no concrete help” against the city’s drug shootings, that he was still working “with limited resources” despite 69 incidents already in 2026, and that “any citizen can get shot.”
Brussels is experiencing a relentless surge in severe violence, marked by a high number of shootings, prompting the public prosecutor to raise the alarm. https://t.co/mLUAhELKMm
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 13, 2025
