Shots fired in Saint-Gilles neighbourhood of Brussels

A shooting took place at Square Jacques Franck, near Porte de Hal in the Brussels district of Saint-Gilles on Tuesday afternoon, local police and the Brussels public prosecutor’s office confirmed. According to mayor Jean Spinette, shots were fired in the air and one person was injured when they were hit by the perpetrators’ vehicle.

“At around 14.00, the police forces of police zone South were called to gunshots near Square Jacques Franck in Saint-Gilles,” said prosecutor’s spokesperson Stefan Vandevelde. “According to initial findings, shots were fired but no one was injured. The perpetrators of the offences fled in a vehicle. As they fled, they hit a woman and several cars.”

According to Le Soir, the police chased the suspects’ vehicle to Anderlecht, where it was neutralised. Weapons were found inside. An investigation has been opened.

“We are in shock, but this was bound to happen,” Spinette said of the shooting, which he linked to drug crime. “We are no longer facing small dealers earning a little extra money; we are facing a phenomenon that has assumed unprecedented, almost industrial proportions, with gangs fighting a real territorial war, here, in Anderlecht, in Brussels.”

He said that police and justice had his “full support” but that the problem of drug dealing “should be tackled much higher up, at the source, and that will require a collective effort from local and federal police, and from the judiciary”.

Two other people were injured in a shooting on Rue Lacaille in the nearby Marolles neighbourhood on Sunday evening.

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