Passengers at the Gare du midi were able to prevent the worst from happening this morning. Around 9.30 a.m., a man armed with a knife started shouting in the middle of the station. “I was having a coffee in the waiting area and heard very loud screams,” a woman told us after alerting us via the orange alert button. “I didn’t know where it was coming from, I thought it was a theft…. But when I got on my train, I saw a crowd of people and several security guards trying to subdue a man who seemed quite unhinged.”
The woman, who is about 60 years old, is then very shocked at what is happening in front of her and other passengers. “I hadn’t seen directly that he had a knife in his hand,” our witness specifies. “A big butcher’s knife. I saw another young man lying on the ground with blood on his face and hands. Another man came to throw the attacker to the ground, I admire his courage,” the woman adds.
“I arrived at the station at 9.40 a.m. and saw this man armed with a knife, screaming,” says this source, who prefers to remain anonymous. “I immediately intervened and subdued the armed man with the help of two security guards. I restrained him and put him in handcuffs.”
This police officer confirmed that there was another man on the ground who he said was injured in the neck area. To protect the other travellers, he isolated the man in handcuffs until reinforcements arrived. “As he lunged to subdue him, the knife fell to the ground,” the woman who contacted us reported. “People were panicking.”
For his part, the police officer is surprised at the lack of reaction of the witnesses, who were shocked and did not dare to intervene. “When you see something like this, you always fear the worst,” he concludes. “There was blood everywhere.”
“I was so scared,” the woman in her sixties finished. “It was a surreal scene.”
The injured man was taken to hospital. Police reinforcements quickly arrived to arrest the suspect. Contacted by us, the Federal Police confirmed the information. “The railway police intervened at around 9.45 a.m. because of a knife attack,” the spokeswoman explains. “One person was slightly injured, he is not in danger of death”.
At this stage, the police cannot give any further information. For example, it is not known whether the two persons involved are already known to the police. RTL.be