Violence erupted this Sunday in Brussels after Morocco’s victory against Belgium at the FIFA World Cup. 200 thugs, according to the mayor, attacked vehicles, street furniture and the police. Journalists were also targeted. The riots began about twenty minutes before the end of the meeting.
Police reported the use of pyrotechnics, the throwing of projectiles, protesters armed with batons, a fire on the public highway and the destruction of a traffic light.
A very tense climate
One of our journalists present in the rue des Foulons described a “very tense climate between the thugs and the police” et “lots of explosions and dark smoke setting in“during the events.
“A journalist was injured in the face by fireworks“, according to the police, who then decided to intervene with a water cannon and tear gas.
A hundred police officers, who suffered projectiles, were mobilized in this intervention. According to a first report, a policeman was slightly injured.
We succeeded in concentrating the incidents
The police have asked residents and supporters to avoid the areas around Boulevard Lemonnier and the Gare du Midi. Metro stations have been closed and streets blocked to limit crowds.
“Our strategy was to concentrate things on a 200 or 300 meter thoroughfare. Don’t go to the shopping areas, rue Neuve, boulevard de Waterloo, the Plaisirs d’hiver. It succeeded, we managed to concentrate the incidents. But I really want to condemn them with the greatest intensity“, told us Philippe Close, the mayor of Brussels. “There’s a rental car that’s been set on fire. We are going to take stock now. But the fact that we concentrated it on boulevard Lemonnier, and that it was not in the Plaisirs d’hiver, nor in the shopping streets, avoided scenes of looting as we might have feared.“.
Six Brussels metro and pre-metro stations closed due to riots
Six Brussels metro and pre-metro stations had to be closed because of the riots which broke out on the sidelines of the Belgium-Morocco match on Sunday evening, said Stib.
The stations closed, by police order, are Etangs Noirs, Comte de Flandre, Beekkant, Anneessens, Lemonnier and Bourse. Trams and metros pass through it, but without stopping. The decision was taken preventively, to prevent the tumult caused by the match on the surface from spreading to the stations, specifies the STIB. The De Brouckère, Sainte-Catherine and Gare centrale stations, which had to be closed for some time, were reopened shortly before 7:00 p.m. The Stib network is also disrupted on the surface due to supporter celebrations, but the company is not yet able to give a more detailed overview. She therefore advises users to follow the situation via her accounts on social networks.
The police also had to intervene in Schaerbeek for overflows
A police platoon, of about 40 personnel, intervened Sunday evening on the Place du Pavillon in Schaerbeek, for overflows on the sidelines of the football match which opposed Belgium to Morocco, Sunday afternoon, within the framework of the World Cup in Qatar. “The situation is currently under control. No significant damage is to be deplored and no injuries either.“, declared to the Belga agency the commissioner Michaël De Beul, spokesperson for the Brussels-North zone.
“We dispersed a group, place du Pavillon in Schaerbeek, which was celebrating the victory of the Moroccan national football team, without too much problem at the start, but which then started attacking passing vehicles“, explained the police commissioner. “It was to such an extent that there was danger for the physical integrity of people, which is why we intervened to disperse them“, he said, Sunday around 6:45 p.m. “For the moment, we occupy the territory and therefore there are no more incidents“, he continued. “These were minor incidents. There were no injuries and, to my knowledge, no damage to vehicles. As we speak, there are no arrests either, but that may change. For now, our primary mission is to restore order“.