Thousands of football fans were trapped inside Belgium’s national stadium for two and a half hours on Monday after a match between Belgium and Sweden was called off at half-time due to a gunman who shot two Swedes in Brussels before kick-off.
The qualifying match for the European Championship was being held about 3 miles from the filming location in the center of the Belgian capital, and more than 35,000 fans attended the match. While the suspect was still at large and said to be targeting the Swedes, Belgian authorities kept fans inside the stadium for security reasons before the evacuation began around midnight local time.
On Tuesday, Belgian police shot dead a 45-year-old Tunisian man accused of his murder. The unidentified man, a suspected extremist, was shot when police attempted to arrest him. He later died in hospital. A military weapon and a bag of clothes were found in the possession of the man, who allegedly posted a video online claiming to have killed two Swedish citizens and saying he was “ready to sacrifice himself” for the sake of the Qur’an.
Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said: “The perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels has been identified and died.” She posted on social media on Tuesday.
“Last night, three people left to attend what was supposed to be a wonderful football party. Two of them lost their lives in a brutal terrorist attack,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a press conference just before dawn. “Their lives were cut short in full flight, cut short by sheer brutality.”
De Croo said that his thoughts are with the families of the victims and that he sent his condolences to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Security measures have been strengthened in the capital, especially around places associated with the Swedish community in the city.
“The attack that began yesterday was carried out with complete cowardice,” De Croo said.
“Everything indicates that this is a terrorist attack against Sweden and Swedish citizens, simply because they are Swedish,” Kristersson said. He said the suspect resided in Sweden from time to time but was not listed in police files there.
De Croo said the attacker was a Tunisian living illegally in Belgium and used a military weapon to kill the two Swedes and shoot a third who was being treated for “serious injuries.”
The fans chanted “All together” inside King Baudouin Stadium after the match on Monday stopped, and thousands of fans from both sides chanted “Sweden!”.
Manu Leroy, CEO of the Belgian Football Association, said that he discovered 10 minutes before the start of the match that “something serious” had happened in downtown Brussels.
He said: “It was decided in the first place that the match would be held because the stadium was the safest place to be at that time, so that the fans could stay here and be safe.”
The fans remained patient into the night and kept cheering as midnight approached. Leroy said the Swedish fans were the last to leave the stadium “because the police will be escorting the Swedish fans and players, who will obviously go straight to the airport and leave.”
Sweden’s players returned to their clubs on Tuesday after an overnight flight back from Brussels. Sweden captain Victor Lindelöf said on Monday that the players never felt in any danger.
“Our security team handled it well and made us feel comfortable,” Lindelöf said. “They made it clear that this is the safest place in Brussels.”
The last Swedish fans — about 650 people, according to the Swedish Football Association — left the stadium under police surveillance at around 4 a.m. local time, along with some federation workers. The federation said that all hotels where Swedish fans were staying were under police guard.
The scene of fans locked inside a major European stadium was reminiscent of the scenes that occurred at the Stade de France outside Paris when France’s national stadium was attacked by Islamic State extremists during a match between France and Germany on November 13, 2015.
It was not clear whether the match, which was tied 1-1 in the first half, would be completed later. UEFA said on Tuesday that it was too early to make any decision and that “further communications will be made in due course.”
Belgium and Austria qualified from Group F for the tournament, which will be held in Germany next year, but the two teams can still lead the group. Sweden cannot finish third in the group and cannot reach the European Championship.
“Belgium has already qualified and we don’t have the chance to qualify for the European Championship, so I don’t see any reason to play,” Lindelof said.
Information from Reuters and Associated Press was used in this story.
