A machete-wielding man who wounded two Belgian policewomen was a 33-year-old Algerian who was living illegally in the country, officials said on Sunday as the Islamic State (IS) group, behind a string of deadly attacks in Europe, claimed the assault.
The Islamic State-linked Amaq news agency said one of the group’s “soldiers” carried out the attack “in response to calls to target citizens” of countries which have joined a US-led coalition bombing the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
The assailant died on Saturday after being shot by a third policewoman.
Belgian prosecutors on Sunday said that the man, “had a criminal record but was not known for terrorism.”
He had been living in Belgium since 2012, they said, adding that the initials of the man’s name are K.B.
Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum, Migration and Administrative Simplification Theo Francken, said the man had been living illegally in Belgium and had “twice been ordered to leave the country.”
Francken — a Flemish nationalist in Belgium’s fragile coalition government — said he would float proposals for accelerating “the forced return of illegal residents.”
Ahead of the Islamic State claim, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters that an investigation was under way “for attempted terrorist murder.”
Michel, speaking after a meeting of Belgium’s security services, repeated investigators’ earlier findings that the attacker had shouted “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for “God is great” — during the assault.
The bloody incident took place outside a police station in Charleroi, 60km south of Brussels, where the officers were on guard.
Police spokesman David Quinaux told broadcaster RTL-TVI the assailant had “taken a machete out of a sports bag he was carrying and dealt very violent blows to the faces of the two policewomen.”
Local police said the two injured policewomen were out of danger, although both were placed in induced comas.
“They were seriously injured in the face and neck,” the federal prosecutors’ office said.
In a statement, prosecutors said two searches had been made in the neighborhood where the attack happened.
Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels Airport and a subway station near the EU headquarters on March 22, killing 32 people.
Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State, which has claimed numerous terror strikes in Europe over the last year.
Belgium’s unit for terror threat analysis coordination said that it would keep the alert level unchanged at level three on a scale of four, meaning an attack is viewed as “possible and likely.”
With regard to attacks specifically on police the unit maintained a level two threat requiring “particular vigilance.”
Michel praised “the exceptional courage of the policewomen who suffered this serious attack” and “did what they had to and doubtless thereby prevented an even greater tragedy.”
Belgians were keeping “cool heads,” Michel said, adding that measures would be taken to bolster security for police.
Belgian police have carried out waves of anti-terrorist raids since last November last year’s coordinated attacks on Paris, which left 130 people dead.
Those attacks were found to have been prepared on Belgian soil and perpetrated, among others, by Belgian-based Muslim militants.
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