Trending
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Police in Belgium are hunting armed men after a shooting outside a metro station in the centre of Brussels on Wednesday morning.
The incident took place outside Clémenceau station at around 6.15am just before the suspects fled into the metro tunnels.
Footage, which has not been verified, showed two hooded gunmen firing Kalashnikov-style rifles outside the station before running off.
Sarah Frederickx, of the Brussels South Local Police Service, said: “We are looking for several suspects. It is a small group, possibly two or three people.
“They are possibly still armed, and we don’t want to take any unnecessary risks. We understand that this is a far-reaching measure taken at a difficult time of the day. We will reopen the tunnels as quickly as possible”.
Thousands of Belgians are facing travel delays as two major Metro lines were closed off during the manhunt on Wednesday.
“South Station is the busiest station on the network and there are also a lot of commuters that arrive there by train and take the metro there.
“As a result of this, the impact is major. We don’t know how long it will go on for,” public transport company MIVB’s spokesperson Guy Sablon said.
It comes after Sweden’s worst mass shooting at a school left at least 11 people dead, including the gunman, on Tuesday.
Armed police exchanged fire with an unnamed shooter at Risbergska School in Örebro, 125 miles west of Stockholm.
The suspect is believed to have acted alone in the shooting and shot himself as terrified teachers and students hid under their tables and barricaded doors.
Maria Pegado, 54, a teacher at the school, described hearing gunshots after someone opened the door and shouted at everyone to get out. “I took all my 15 students out into the hallway and we started running,” she said.
“Then I heard two shots but we made it out. We were close to the school entrance. I saw people dragging injured out, first one, then another. I realised it was very serious.”
Six people remain in hospital, including five with gunshot wounds and two in intensive care, local health authorities confirmed.
Paying tribute to the victims, Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the attack as the “worst mass shooting in Swedish history”.
Rosenbad, Sweden’s government building, flew the Swedish flag at half-mast on Wednesday.
