Belgian PM: Machete attack on police may be terrorism

Authorities consider beefing up security after assailant shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ wounds two policewomen, one of them seriously

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Saturday “preliminary indications” suggest the attack against two female officers in the city Charleroi in southern Belgium was an act of terrorism, but that authorities were still collecting information.

The prime minister has cut short his vacation in the south of France and will return to Belgium for a meeting Sunday of the National Security Council.

The machete attack Saturday, by a man shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest), took place at a wooden hut that had been erected outside the Charleroi police station to provide an additional layer of security. Two policewomen were hurt, one of them seriously.

The attacker, whose identity was not immediately known, was shot by police. He was later died of his wounds.

This picture taken on August 6, 2016 shows a blanket on the ground in the area around a police building after a man wounded two policewomen with a machete in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi. AFP/ BELGA / VIRGINIE LEFOUR) — This picture taken on August 6, 2016 shows a blanket on the ground in the area around a police building after a man wounded two policewomen with a machete in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi. (AFP/Belga/Virginie Lefour)

Paul Magnette, mayor of the city in southern Belgium, said the checkpoint outside the station succeeded in preventing the attacker from reaching the building and causing more havoc. The mayor said that in the wake of the attack, Belgian authorities are discussing whether security for police facilities and officers should be beefed up further.

Belgian Interior Minister Jean Jambon condemned a “disgusting act in Charleroi” on his Twitter account and said the country’s terror threat level — currently at level three on a scale of four — would be examined.

Belgium has been on a high state of alert since suicide bombers struck the Brussels airport and a subway station near the European Union’s institutions on March 22, killing 32 people.

Belgian police have also carried out dozens of anti-terror raids since the November 2015 attacks in Paris, planned in Belgium and involving Belgian extremists, which left 130 people dead. Many of the attackers, who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, lived in Belgium.

The terror group has claimed numerous terror attacks in Europe in the last year.

Last weekend, a 33-year-old man identified only as Nourredine H. was arrested on charges of participating in a terrorist group and planning “terrorist murders” following searches in the city of Liege and the Mons region.

Belgium is the main source per head of population of jihadist recruits going from European Union countries to fight with IS in Syria, causing deep concern that they will return home battle-hardened and even more radicalized.

The interior ministry said 457 Belgian men and women had gone or tried to join jihadists in the Middle East, including 90 who are missing or dead.

Belgium launched its first attacks against IS in Iraq in late 2014 as part of a US-led coalition. It joined a similar anti-IS operation in Syria this year.

Several of those involved in the Brussels bloodshed in March were directly linked to the November 13 bomb and gun attacks in Paris.

In June Belgian authorities charged two men with terrorist offences amid reports of a planned attack on a Euro 2016 fanzone in central Brussels.

Belgium then beefed up security for its July 21 national day celebrations after a truck attack that killed 85 people in the French city of Nice on Bastille Day, July 14