Rutte expresses condolences after terrorist attack around Belgium-Sweden football match

Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his condolences to the Belgian and Swedish Prime Ministers on Monday evening after a radical Islamic attack in Brussels. The European Championship qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden was played in the city on Monday. A man shot and killed two Swedes and injured a third in Brussels city center. The alleged perpetrator is still at large.

Rutte spoke on X of “terrible reports from Brussels.” He wished Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson “Strength in the decisions of the coming hours. My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.”

The European Championship match was halted at halftime due to the terrorist attack in the Belgian capital. For their own safety, all supporters were kept in the stadium for hours. The evacuation of the football stadium in Brussels started just before midnight and ended around 2:00 a.m. Swedish supporters were the last of the about 30,000 football fans to leave the stadium. Police escorts had been arranged for them. The players of the Swedish team were taken to the airport under police escort.

The suspect of the terrorist attack is still on the run, Belgian Prime Minister De Croo said at a press conference at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday. The suspect is a Tunisian man who is illegally in Belgium, De Croo said.

The Netherlands is closely monitoring the situation and is in contact with the Belgian authorities, the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV), Pieter-Jaap Aaalbersberg, said on X. “Horrible reports about the shooting in Brussels,” Aalbersberg wrote. My thoughts go out to those involved.”

The threat level in the Belgian capital was raised to the highest level after the radical Islamic attack. The threat level in the Netherlands is still at 3 out of 5, which means that an attack in the Netherlands is conceivable.

Frans Timmermans, leader of GroenLinks-PvdA, also wrote on X that his thoughts were with the families and friends of the victims. “A terrible attack on Swedish citizens at the heart of our European democracy. We must never bow to terrorism.”

PVV leader Geert Wilders said in a response that he has been warning for 20 years about “all that Islamic violence. No one listened. And still, no one dares to mention it. I do.” After the attack, Wilders called on Dutch voters to vote “en masse” for the PVV in the parliamentary elections in November.