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Three killed in shooting outside Jewish Museum in Brussels
Local media report gunman kills three in central Brussels shooting rampage near Jewish Museum; Belgium interior minister, who was at scene, claims: 'It is likely that this is an anti-Semitic attack.'
According to La Libre, three people died and another was seriously injured during the shootout Saturday, around 3:50 pm local time, at the Sablon in Brussels. According to the report, twelve people suffered shocked and a fourth victim is in critical condition; one person was also reported in custody - however the report was not confirmed.
Two senior Belgium minister were in the area, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and Interior Minister Joëlle Milquet. According to the latter, "it is likely that this is an anti-Semitic attack."
Julien Klener, who heads the Consistoire Central Israèlite de Belgique, the official Jewish umbrella organization representing Judaism and local Jewish communities in the country, told media that "there have been recent threats to the Jewish Museum."
"This is a terrorist act, the assassin entered deliberately in a Jewish museum," President of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism (LBCA) Joel Rubinfeld told the AFP.
"He killed three people, wounded one, with a car waiting nearby," added Rubinfeld, claiming that as of late there has been a rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric, and according to him, such an event "is the inevitable result of a climate which distils hatred."
A spokesman for the Brussels fire brigade said the shooter drove up to the museum, went inside and fired shots.
"According to the information we have at the moment, it was a solitary shooter and it seems to have happened inside the museum," Pierre Meys, Brussels fire brigade spokesman, told French channel BFM TV.
According to the La Libre report, a man drew up to the museum in an Audi, exited the car and opened fire on bypasses. He then reportedly reentered the car and fled the scene.
The report further claimed that two women and one man were killed in the attack, the identity of the victims were confirmed by the Brussels police commander Guido Van Wymersch.
"I heard the shots , I ran and I saw the body on the ground," Minister Reynders reportedly told La Libre. Reynders tweeted that he was "Shocked by the killings at the Jewish Museum, I think of the victims I saw on site and their families."
Belgium Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo was also reportedly "very shocked".
A witness, Alain Sobotik, told AFP that he saw "two bodies" in the lobby of the museum. "There was a young woman with blood on her head. She was still holding a folder in her hands, it was like a tourist," said the witness, reached by telephone.
Three killed in shooting outside Jewish Museum in Brussels - Israel News, Ynetnews