Six people were lightly injured on Friday when a van pulled into a hotel garden in central Brussels, local fire brigades and the prosecutor’s office said. Investigators are trying to determine whether it was an accident or a deliberate attack.
The driver of the white van fled the scene around 1 pm local time. In the afternoon, he was detained in the northern part of Antwerp, Brussels prosecutors said. Earlier, the suspect’s car was found abandoned near Brussels.
“The facts make us think about past attacks, but that is not the only possibility we are considering. It could be just an accident,” said a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office.
None of the six people with minor injuries were hospitalized.
The perpetrator’s motives are still being established, but eyewitnesses to the incident told Belgian media that the van entered Saint-Michel street, home to a cafe, which leads to the busy Rue Neuve shopping promenade. The cafe then sped away.
The recording of the incident shows how the white van drives quickly and aggressively, but only scrapes a piece of the hotel’s garden and it is not clear that it is targeting the guests.
Main photo source: Reuters, CCTV via Twitter Georges Dalmagne
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