A car drove into a crowd gathering for a Sunday morning carnival in Strépy-Bracquegnies in southern Belgium, killing at least six people and injuring 26 others, authorities said.
The crash happened around 5 a.m. (4 a.m. GMT). “A car driving at high speed drove into the crowd which had gathered to attend (the carnival),” Jacques Gobert, the mayor of La Louvière, a town not far from the border, told the Belga press agency. French and on which the village of Strépy-Bracquegnies depends.
According to a press release from the mayor’s office, a so-called “pickup” group (people gathering to go to the carnival) of about a hundred people had just left the Omnisports hall to go back to the center of the village when a vehicle drove off. in the crowd.
“In the current state of the investigation, we know that a vehicle drove into a collection group and that we deplore six deaths, 26 injured at various stages”, including “10 people whose days are currently in danger”, declared Damien Verheyen, deputy public prosecutor of Mons, during a press conference in La Louvière.
“The car was occupied by two people who were arrested,” he added, specifying that they were from La Louvière and born in 1988 and 1990 respectively. He added that the terrorist track was excluded for the moment. .
“Horrible news from Strépy-Bracquegnies,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Twitter. “A community that was gathering to celebrate was struck in the heart.”
“My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. All my support also goes to the emergency services for their help and assistance provided, ”added Mr. De Croo who was to go there during the day, accompanied by King Philippe according to the office of the Prime Minister.
In Belgium, towns and villages organize many street parades for Carnival, the best known in Binche and Aalst.
Like that of Binche, the carnival of Strépy-Bracquegnies welcomes costumed participants, the “Gilles”, summoned early to participate in the parade.
“I was walking next to it,” said a witness, Théo, on Belgian public television RTBF. “I turned around and saw a car driving into the troop.”
“She arrived very quickly and did not brake. She continued and she boarded a Gille 100 meters further, ”continued the young man. “There were a lot of people on the ground.”
“What was supposed to be a convivial party turned into a tragedy. We are monitoring the situation closely,” Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden tweeted. “My sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who died and were injured in the incident that occurred this morning in Strépy”.
In neighboring Germany, on February 24, 2020 in Volkmarsen (West), a man purposely drove his vehicle into the crowd during a carnival parade, injuring some 90 people, including children. He was sentenced last December to life imprisonment.
Germany was hit by the deadliest jihadist attack on its soil on December 19, 2016, when a ram truck killed 12 people and injured dozens at a Christmas market in Berlin.
The country has seen several similar attacks since, most often perpetrated by lunatics, such as in December 2020, when a German man believed to be suffering from psychosis killed five people, including a baby, by driving his car down a pedestrian street in the city. from Trier (South-West Germany).
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca