Belgian security forces arrested a man after he drove towards a crowded shopping area at high speed in the port city of Antwerp, officials say.
Authorities found a rifle and bladed weapons in the car after the suspect, identified by prosecutors as a 39-year-old named Mohamed R., tried to flee and was detained in the northern city.
The man was “under the influence of something” but it was not clear what substance, a source close to the investigation tells AFP.
Police officers and and Sedee-Dovo, the mine clearance service of Belgian defense, patrol in Antwerp where Belgian police arrested a man on March 23, 2017 after he tried to drive into a crowd at high-speed in a shopping area in the port city of Antwerp, a police chief said. (AFP/Belga/VIRGINIE LEFOUR)
Authorities were not certain if it was an attempted attack and the incident remained under investigation, several Belgian sources added on condition of anonymity.
The prosecutor’s office says the man was a national of France, but a French police source told AFP he was a Tunisian holding French residency papers.
— AFP
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