Belgium: Man arrested for attempting to drive down shopping street at high speed

A man drove a car at speed into a pedestrianised street in Antwerp on Thursday, forcing people to jump out of its path, a day after an assailant rammed a vehicle into crowds in central London, police said.

The car sped away in the Belgian port leaving no one injured, but prosecutors said police later arrested a man suspected of being the driver, naming him as Mohamed R., a 39-year-old French national of North African origin. Antwerp police found knives in the vehicle and a canister containing an unknown substance that bomb disposal officers were checking, Belgian federal prosecutors' office said in a statement. 

The Belgian federal prosecutors did not give details of any motive but said they had been called in "based on all these elements and the events in London yesterday". A French source later said that authorities there believed the suspect had not been trying to hit anyone, but was probably drunk and trying to escape a police check.

The source described the suspect as a Tunisian national living in France, known to police for common law crimes. There was no immediate comment on the source's account from Belgium. The car entered Antwerp's busy De Meir shopping street at around 11 a.m. (1000 GMT), said police.

"A vehicle with French plates has tried to drive at high speed into the Meir (shopping street). A man in camouflage was taken away," Muyters told a news conference. "The pedestrians had to jump aside," he said. "My gratitude on behalf of all Antwerp to the soldiers who have intervened, the police services and the special intervention force," Antwerp mayor Bart de Wever tweeted.

Patrolling soldiers tried to stop it but it went through a red light and drove off, said a police spokesman. The vehicle later came to a halt near Antwerp's waterfront, it added without going into further details. "I want to thank the fast response team which arrested the man in a professional manner and may have prevented much worse," Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever said.

The London attacks came exactly one year after twin bombings at Brussels' airport and its metro killed 32 people. More police were visible on the streets of Antwerp on Thursday afternoon. The London attacker who killed three people near parliament before being shot dead was named on Thursday as British-born Khalid Masood, who was once investigated by MI5 intelligence officers over concerns about violent extremism.

Prime Minister Charles Michel said the government was "following this situation as it develops" in the Flemish- speaking northern city. "We continue to be vigilant. Our security services did an excellent job in Antwerp, thanks," he tweeted. Meir is the main shopping street in Antwerp's historic centre and is mostly pedestrianised. It is one of the most important shopping areas in the country.

With soldiers deployed at key sites, Belgium has been on high alert since March 22 in 2016 when suicide bombers attacked Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station that left 32 people dead and more than 320 wounded. Belgium suffered a further shock in August when a machete- wielding man attacked two policewomen in the industrial town of Charleroi. He badly injured one in the face, before a third officer shot him dead.

Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists have claimed responsibility for a number of attacks using vehicles in Europe in recent months, including Wednesday's carnage in London. Attackers rammed lorries into crowds in the French city of Nice in July 2016 killing 86 people and a Christmas market in the German capital Berlin in 2016. 

On Wednesday, Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde led ceremonies commemorating the Brussels bombings, which were also claimed by ISIS. Interior Minister Jan Jambon told AFP in the runup to the anniversary that tighter security had made Belgium safer safer than it was a year ago. However he said it faced the threat of continuing radicalisation at home and from battle-hardened fighters returning from Middle East battle fields.