Belgium says terrorism possible motive in Jewish museum killings

Surveillance-camera images of the assault released by police indicate that the gunman “acted in cold blood and in a very determined way”, say Belgian authorities.

An image from CCTV security camera footage of the suspect in Saturday's Jewish Museum shooting in Brussels entering the building. Police Federale / EPA
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BRUSSELS // Belgian authorities have said they are not ruling out terrorism as the motive in a deadly attack at a Jewish museum over the weekend and have elevated the case to the federal level.

Surveillance-camera images of the assault released by police indicate that the gunman “acted in cold blood and in a very determined way”, Ine Van Wymersch, an official in the Brussels proscecutor’s office, said on Monday.

“The identification of the victims and their nationalities is a complementary element” in concluding that the investigation should be at the national level, she said.

The government raised the threat level at Jewish sites across the country after the shooting on Saturday at the Jewish Mueum of Belgium in Brussels left three people dead and another fighting for his life. Ms Van Wymersch said two Israelis and one French citizen were killed in the attack and a Belgian man injured.

The fourth victim is still in “very critical condition”, she said.

Investigators on Monday released video footage showing the killer entering the building, pulling a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle from a bag, firing it and then leaving on foot. The video clip is 28 seconds long. The federal police posted the tape, along with two shorter videos of the man outside the museum, on the internet and called on the public to help find the attacker.

Ms Van Wymersch said investigators had no new information to disclose on the identity or nationality of the gunman.

While Belgian authorities have not confirmed that the killings were antisemitic, Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Jacques Revah, said “the place chosen, the people chosen, the modus operandi chosen; all that indicates that it wasn’t by chance that it happened at that place”.

“Clearly when there are murders inside a Jewish museum, you ask yourself if it was an antisemitic attack,” said the Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders, who was near the museum at the time of the shooting and was among the first to arrive on the scene. “But wait until we have caught the culprit or culprits and we can be sure.”

* Bloomberg News