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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Sami Quadri and Peter Allen

Police shoot dead attacker who killed two football fans in Brussels

Police in Brussels have shot dead a man suspected of killing two Swedish football fans.

Abdesalem Lassoued, 45, died from his wounds on Tuesday morning after officers cornered him in a café in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood.

He had been on the run since Monday evening when he went on the rampage in the Belgium capital, during the Belgium-Sweden Euro 2024 qualifier football match.

A local prosecuting source confirmed the suspect was shot and arrested in a café in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood on Tuesday morning.

The gunman, believed to be linked to IS, was travelling on a moped and was heard to shout "Allahu Akbar" - an Islamic phrase for "God is the Greatest" - during the attack.

He is thought to have opened fire into a van and in the lobby of a building near Place Sainctelette in the Belgian capital.

His victims were both wearing Sweden football shirts.

Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told public broadcaster VRT that the automatic weapon found on him was the same as the one used in the attack.

A police van is parked near the Eugene Verboekhovenplein in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels (BELGA/AFP via Getty Images)

The suspect was reportedly seen brandishing a “Kalishnikov-style” gun moments before the shooting.

The match was abandoned at half-time as the players refused to return after the break.

Sweden’s manager Janne Andersson said: “The team agreed 100 per cent that we didn’t want to play on out of respect for the victims and their families.”

The crowd were kept in the King Baudouin Stadium for hours but some had left in panic when word spread of the double killing.

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