Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a machete attack in Belgium on Saturday that seriously injured two female police officers. A man attacked two police officers with a weapon near the headquarters on Saturday before being apprehended.
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BRUSSELS (AP) Belgium’s top migration official says an Algerian man who attacked two policewomen with a machete over the weekend was known to authorities for petty crimes but had not been linked to any terror offenses.
The 33-year-old Algerian national, identified as K.B., requested a residency permit in 2013 and 2014, and both applications were rejected, Belgian media reported on Monday.
Prime Minister Charles Michel announced Sunday “we have been informed by federal prosecutors that an investigation has started for attempted terrorist murder… given certain elements”.
The attack began just before 4 pm local time, when an individual approached a checkpoint in front of the police headquarters where the two officers were posted, according to the accounts of police and prosecutors.
A nearby third police officer shot the attacker, who later died. Police spokesman David Quinaux told broadcaster RTL-TVI the assailant had “taken a machete out of a sports bag he was carrying and dealt very violent blows to the faces of the two policewomen”.
Her colleague was less serious injured in the attack. “He is known to police for criminal acts, not for terrorism”. – Arabic for “God is great” – as he slashed at the officers outside Charleroi’s main police station.
“We maintain cool heads and blood”, added the premier, who said unspecified measures would be taken to bolster security for police while noting that Belgium was confronting a similar threat to that faced by its European neighbours.
Police secure the area around a police building in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi following a machete attack.
Islamist bombers killed 32 people in suicide attacks in Brussels in March.
Belgium has been at Level 3 on a four-point terrorism alert scale since the attacks in Paris on November 13 that killed 130 victims.
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Belgium and its capital Brussels, which houses European Union institutions and the headquarters of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, are now on a security alert level of three out of a maximum four, denoting a “possible and probable” threat.
