Six people were slightly injured on Friday after a van pulled into a cafe garden in central Brussels, local fire brigades and the prosecutor’s office said. Investigators are trying to determine whether it was an accident or a deliberate attack.
The white van driver fled the scene around 1pm local time. In the late afternoon, he was detained in the northern part of Antwerp, Bruxel prosecutors said. Earlier, the suspect’s car was found abandoned near Brussels.
“The facts, of course, make you think about past attacks, but that’s not the only option we’re considering. It is possible that it was just an accident, said a spokesman for the Brussels Prosecutor’s Office.
None of the six slightly injured people required hospitalization.
The perpetrator’s motives are still being established, but witnesses to the incident told the Belgian media that the van screeched into Saint-Michel Street, which is home to a café, which leads to the busy Rue Neuve shopping promenade, and seemed to aim at the café, then drove off at high speed.
The recording of the incident shows how the white van is driving quickly and dynamically turns, but only rubs against a fragment of the cafe’s garden and it is not obvious that it is targeting guests.
Main photo source: Reuters, CCTV VIA TWITTER GEORGES DALLEMAGNE