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World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder urged Belgian authorities to protect Jewish sites in the country. He said no threats have been issued to the Jewish community.

I would never have imagined something like that happening in Brussels." "This really reminds of what you experienced in France with Mr Merah attacking a Jewish school," Maurice Sosnowski, president of the Coordinating Committee of Belgian Jewish Organisations, was quoted saying by BFM TV. Jewish community officials drew parallels between the shooting and the 2012 killing of four Jews in a school in France by an Al Qaeda-inspired gunman, Mohamed Merah. Security around all Jewish institutions in the country has been raised to the highest level, and prime minister Elio Di Rupo met with police and senior officials to discuss the situation.Ībout half of Belgium's 42,000-strong Jewish community lives in Brussels. Heightened security at Jewish facilities across Belgium It is the first fatal attack on a Jewish centre in the country since the early 1980s. Israel's foreign ministry has confirmed that two of the three people shot dead inside the museum were Israeli tourists.

"Slander and lies against the State of Israel continue to be heard on European soil even as the crimes against humanity and acts of murder being perpetrated in our region are systematically ignored." "This act of murder is the result of constant incitement against Jews and their state," Mr Netanyahu said. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was the result of anti-Jewish and Israeli sentiment in Europe. "Witnesses told me that the suspected shooter was carrying bags when he entered the museum so it was urgent for the police to check that nothing had been left inside the museum." I saw two people on the ground and with other people, we called the emergency services," he told French BFM TV. "We know that the location, the Jewish Museum in Brussels, makes one think of it being an anti-Semitic attack, but we do not have enough to confirm this is the case."īelgium's King Philip expressed his "indignation over this act of violence closely affecting the Jewish community".įoreign minister Didier Reynders, who was in the area at the time of the shooting, said witnesses had told him the suspected shooter was carrying bags when he entered the museum. The person does admit being present," Ms Van Wymersch said. "The link between this person and the incident is not clear. The Belgian public prosecutor's office says the person being questioned was detained at the wheel of his car, although there is no proven connection to the attack.Ī spokeswoman for Brussels prosecutors office, Ine Van Wymersch, said there was no clear information about the perpetrator but anti-Semitic motives could not be ruled out. An annual outdoor jazz concert due to be held in a popular square near the museum was called off. Police cordoned off the area around the museum in central Brussels, a busy tourist district packed with cafes, restaurants and antique furniture shops. Police say they are questioning a "suspect" arrested after the deadly shooting at the museum and that they are looking for a second person.Ī spokeswoman said the victims had been shot in the face and neck and a fourth victim of the shooting was in a life-threatening condition in hospital.īelgian media reports say the attacker arrived by car, got out, fired on people at the museum entrance, and returned to the vehicle which then sped away. Security has been stepped up at Jewish sites across Belgium after a gunman shot dead two men and a woman at a Jewish museum in the capital Brussels.