The driver of the van that crashed into a terrace in the center of Brussels on Friday, causing six minor injuries, was charged with attempted murder, but “the terrorist trail has been dismissed,” the local prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.
Shortly before 1:00 p.m., a van was traveling at high speed towards a terrace on rue Saint-Michel, in the busy historic center of the city, rammed it before fleeing, according to the police. Six people with minor injuries were treated at the scene. Quickly identified, a suspect was arrested in Antwerp (north) at the end of the day.
Suspect accused of attempted seduction
“The terrorist track has been dismissed. The suspect arrested yesterday was tried for attempted murder, was charged with these acts by the investigating judge and placed under an arrest warrant,” a spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office told AFP.
She declined to provide any profile information on the suspect. A courtroom will decide Thursday on the extension of her preventive detention.
Initially, on Friday night, the prosecution had not ruled out the possibility of a terrorist act, indicating that “the different avenues were open.”
Following the incident, the organization in charge of analyzing the terrorist threat in Belgium (OCAM) had raised its alert level for a few hours from 2 to 3 for frequented places in Brussels before lowering it “due to reassuring elements” in the ongoing investigation.
Source: BFM TV
