Riots in Belgium after match with Morocco: it has nothing to do with football, interior minister judges
Violence broke out in Brussels on Sunday after Morocco’s World Cup victory over Belgium, with several “dozens” of people attacking police and burning a car and street furniture.
Not surprisingly, Belgium’s main newspapers are making their front pages this Monday, November 28, about the Red Devils’ performance in Sunday’s World Cup defeat to Morocco, as well as the riots that broke out after the final whistle. Street furniture and cars were looted in Brussels, and several people were injured. The police made administrative arrests of about ten people.
Images of the looted capital traveled around the world. Police said calm had returned by 7pm and said 11 people had been arrested in the capital, including one in police custody.
The incidents took place on the sidelines of an impromptu gathering where hundreds of Moroccan supporters peacefully waved flags and set off fireworks as scores of cars honked their horns.
AFP reports that Moroccans are one of the main foreign communities in the country.
However, the match has been the focus of particular attention from various police zones in the Belgian capital. Drones and helicopters have been deployed to monitor the streets. And many policemen were standing and directing the traffic. Ilse Van de Keere, spokeswoman for the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles police zone, explained in a press release in the middle of the day (the match was not yet over). dozens of people, some wearing hoods, sought confrontation with the police, who threatened public safety“.
“A journalist was injured in the face as a result of fireworks“Always according to the police, he then decided to intervene with pressurized water and tear gas.
On Sunday evening, and after calm had been restored, the mayor of Brussels condemned these excesses in the strongest possible terms. “They are thugs, scoundrels who came to destroy the party and Brussels“Philippe Klose said on RTBF’s microphone. “It was expected that events could happen. Our strategy was to cover them with one artery, more than 300 meters. And it worked because the robbers couldn’t go to the shopping areas or the Christmas market..” “Le Soir” newspaper writes that the neighborhood is still upside down and the damage is significant.
On Sunday evening, police announced that they had made dozens of administrative arrests and one judicial arrest. Brussels police said other suspects could be identified when CCTV footage is reviewed.
“A Band of Thieves”
This Monday morning, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said on Radio 1 that the riots were unacceptable and had nothing to do with football. According to the minister, the police are well trained and have ensured that violence does not spread, but it is difficult to control it. just a band of thugs trying to cause a riot“.
For Annelies Verlinden, the problem is more important and goes beyond football: how should we deal with people who don’t want to register in our society? The fight against the rioters now falls on justice, finally the minister emphasized that “it is a very solid and fast movement“.
The events also took place in the Netherlands
In Liège (east), about 50 people attacked a police station, broke windows and damaged two police cars. The police intervened with pressurized water. Shop windows and bus shelter were destroyed.
Events also took place in Antwerp (in the north), where dozens of people were arrested.
Incidents also occurred in several Dutch cities on Sunday. According to the police, the mobile units of the Dutch police thus charged the rioters in the center of Rotterdam, where 500 people had gathered. According to the police, pyrotechnic devices and glass shells were thrown especially at the police.
According to a spokesman, riot police intervened in The Hague, where the riots took place, on Sunday evening, and in Amsterdam, about five hundred people gathered.
