One Killed in Shootout with Belgian and French Police During Brussels Anti-Terror Raid
On Tuesday, Belgian and French police stormed a house in Brussels while after being fired upon while investigating a link to the November attacks in Paris. According to the Associated Press, they killed one suspect, who was armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Three Belgian and one French police officer were slightly wounded. One was wounded on his ear, the other when his own weapon was hit by one of the suspect’s bullets. “We had a lot of luck,” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said. “It could have been a drama.”
The Belgian prosecutor’s office issued a statement, Agence France-Presse reports:
“In this operation, one or several people opened fire on the police as they came through the door... (and) one suspect armed with a Kalashnikov type assault rifle was killed,” a statement said.
The identity of this person “is being established,” it said.
There had been speculation that Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the November attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead, might have been the target of the operation but the prosecutor’s spokesman expressly ruled it out.
“The investigation is being actively pursued, night and day and it is not possible to give further details at this stage so as not to hinder enquiries,” the statement continued.