Belgian police hunted two suspects in the Brussels metro tunnels on Wednesday, the 5th of January, after a shooting at the entrance of Clemenceau station in the centre of the Belgian capital in the early hours of the morning, reports the British broadcaster BBC.
CCTV footage broadcast by local media shows at least two men wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons. The shooters had targeted one man but missed. The incident is reported to have been most likely related to drug trafficking.
Video from the scene shows that the shooting took place at about 06:15 local time. BruxellesToday reported that the suspects had Kalashnikovs with them.
#BREAKING 🇧🇪Belgian police are searching for armed suspects after a shooting at a Brussels metro station. CCTV footage shows two men in balaclavas carrying what appear to be Kalashnikov rifles at Clemenceau station early Wednesday.
Federal police, railway police, and other units… pic.twitter.com/I6LcncbiWj
— 凤凰欧洲 PhoenixCNE News (@PhoenixCNE_News) February 5, 2025
Brussels police spokeswoman Sarah Frederickx said that the suspects fled into the metro station and were possibly still in the metro tunnels. She said there were no casualties in the shooting. Both local police and federal railway police are searching the area.
Police are looking for “a small group of people, probably two or three persons”, Frederickx said, adding that they may still be armed and that police do not want to take any chances, so several stations have been closed for security reasons.
The station closures paralysed traffic on Brussels’ widely used metro system. It is not yet known when normal traffic might resume.
Clemenceau station is close to the main Brussels-Midi station, where Eurostar trains from Paris and London arrive.