Abdesalem Lassoued, 45, who entered Belgium in 2019 and was the primary suspect in the incident that took place Monday evening in Brussels, was apprehended and later killed, according to a Tuesday morning announcement from the federal prosecutor’s office in Belgium. The police departments in Tunisia and Belgium were already familiar with him.
Terror strikes Europe again. On Monday evening, two Swedish nationals were killed in Brussels in a gun attack described as a “cowardly attack” by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. A third person was seriously injured. The main suspect, who fled on a scooter after the incident, was finally arrested this Tuesday morning. He died after an exchange of fire with the police. An automatic weapon was found on him when he was neutralized.
A video message of protest had been posted on Monday evening on social networks by this man “presenting himself as the attacker and saying he was inspired by the Islamic State”, underlined the federal prosecutor’s office, responsible for terrorism cases, which been seized of the investigation.
Over the hours that followed the attack, the profile of the attacker quickly took shape, even though he was still wanted: Abdesalem L., 45, is a Tunisian in an irregular situation on Belgian territory at the time. that he had applied for asylum in 2019, the year he arrived in Belgium. This was refused in 2020 and the forty-year-old had since disappeared from the radar of the Belgian authorities.