Belgian police shoot knife-wielding Afghan man
BRUSSELS: Police shot an Afghan man who lunged at them with a knife at the main railway station in the Belgian city of Ghent, but there are “no signs of terrorism,” prosecutors said yesterday.
The 28-year-old who is now in hospital is likely to survive his wounds after the 8.30pm incident, the Ghent prosecutor’s spokeswoman An Schoonjans told AFP.
“There are no signs of radicalism or terrorism but there are a lot of signs the man has psychiatric problems,” Schoonjans said.
Investigators will interrogate him as soon as they can, she added.
Schoonjans said she could not confirm media reports he yelled Allahu Akbar ‘God is Greatest’.
The Afghan, a resident of the northeastern tourist city of Ghent, entered the railway station, “he screamed and he went at the policemen, he wanted to attack them,” she said.
He ignored police orders to stop and “then they shot him,” Schoonjans said. “His life is not in danger now.” She said there were no plans for now to transfer the case to the federal prosecutor’s office in Brussels, which handles terrorism cases.
Belgium lowered its terror threat level Monday after three years of high alert that included the March 2016 Brussels suicide bombings, but soldiers continue to guard key sites.