One dead in fourth shooting linked to drug gangs in Brussels this week

A shooting incident in Brussels — the fourth in the Belgian capital this week — killed one person, authorities told local media, with the spike in violence linked to rival drug gangs.

The latest outbreak of violence in the city happened in the early hours of Friday in the Peterbos neighbourhood in Anderlecht, the Brussels prosecutor’s office told the media.

The victim was a man who has yet to be identified, police spokesperson Sarah Frederickx said.

“It is probably linked to rival drug gangs,” said a spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office.

The fatal shooting on Friday follows three other incidents in the last three days.

One person was injured on Thursday in a shooting near the Clémenceau metro station in Anderlecht.

On Wednesday, two men exchanged fire outside the same station, which led to a manhunt in the tunnels of the metro system and a brief shutdown of several stations. The suspects have yet to be caught.

Hours earlier, two people were injured in a shooting on the other side of Brussels, in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.

Although it is unclear if the incidents are related, they are believed to be linked to territorial disputes between different drug gangs in the capital.

“These are probably reprisals, wars between mafias that are waging a war for territory,” Brussels mayor Philippe Close told public radio.

On Thursday, Close said he would convene other mayors of the city’s districts to propose a plan to combat drug-related violence, according to Belga News Agency.

The government has said it plans to temporarily merge the six separate Brussels police zones in order to more efficiently deploy officers between different districts.

The new Belgian government, led by Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever, has said that he wants the police zones to be permanently merged to better combat violence in the city.