Rabbi stabbed in the throat in Antwerp

A 31-year-old Belgian rabbi was stabbed in Antwerp Saturday while on his way to his synagogue, near a train station in the city’s Jewish district.

According to initial reports, the man’s life was not in immediate danger but he was in serious condition and he remained in hospital. On Saturday evening Channel 2 News reported a slight improvement in his condition.

The rabbi was stabbed in the throat as he walked under a railway bridge to the Pelikaanstraat area on Saturday morning, according to the European Jewish Press.

Belgian police launched an investigation into the incident. The motive, whether anti-Semitic or criminal, was not immediately known.

A man who had initially been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack was later released from police custody after investigators determined he was not involved in the stabbing.

In May, four people, including an Israeli couple, were killed at the Brussels Jewish Museum when an Islamic extremist burst into the site and opened fire.

Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, who had spent more than a year fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria, is awaiting trial for the attack on charges of “murder in a terrorist context.”

The museum opened again on September 14 under tight security.

The shooting — the first such attack in Brussels in three decades — underlined fears of a resurgence of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and of terror attacks from foreign fighters returning from Syria.

AFP contributed to this report.