Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was not in his office at 16 Rue de la Loi at that time.
A man with a knife was arrested in front of the office of the Belgian Prime Minister in Brussels on Monday. The prosecutor’s office reported on Tuesday that this man had already committed a similar act in the past and the police had a record of him. It is assumed that he is mentally unstable, writes TASR according to the AFP agency.
On Monday morning, a 29-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, approached two soldiers guarding the entrance to the prime minister’s office building, spoke incoherently, and then pulled out a knife. The soldiers convinced him to put the knife down and pacified him before the arrival of the police, who then arrested him. The man did not resist and no one was injured in the incident.
The arrested man is being investigated for attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons, said Brussels prosecutor’s spokeswoman Yasmina Vanoverschelde. The motive for his act is still unknown, while the authorities have requested a psychiatric examination.
The man committed a similar incident already in April, when he tried to attack a security guard at the US Embassy in Brussels with a knife. “In this case, a judicial investigation was launched and the suspect was placed in a psychiatric facility,” Vanoverschelde said.
The American Embassy is located just a few hundred meters from the office of the Belgian Prime Minister. Many embassies and government offices are located in this area.
