One man has been injured in an apparent knife attack in the middle of the busy Gare du Midi station in Brussels on Tuesday morning.
The incident occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the busy railway station in central Brussels.
Commuters told Belgian broadcaster RTL a man was causing a commotion in the middle of the station.
“I was having a coffee in the waiting area, and I heard very loud shouting,” one eyewitness told the broadcaster. “I didn’t know where it could have come from, I thought it was a theft… But when I got on my train, I saw a crowd, and several security guards who were trying to control a gentleman who looked like he was somewhere else.”
The witness, a 60-year-old woman confirmed the man was wielding “a big butcher’s knife” and stood over “another young man on the ground, who was bloody on his face and hands.”
According to witnesses, another male — now known to be a French plain-clothes police officer — intervened and apprehended the assailant.
Speaking to RTL, the officer said: “I arrived at 9:40 a.m. at the station, and I saw this man in the middle armed with a knife, he was shouting.
“There was blood everywhere. I intervened immediately and subdued the armed man with the help of two security guards. I immobilized him and handcuffed him,” he added.
The police officer confirmed another man was lying on the ground with an injury to his neck.
The victim was taken to the hospital, and police reinforcements arrived quickly to arrest the suspect, according to the federal police, a spokesperson for whom told RTL: “The railway police intervened around 9:45 a.m. due to a knife fight.
“A person is slightly injured, his life is not in danger,” they added.
An investigation has been opened to further determine the facts.
The incident comes less than a week after a knife attack in a major Paris railway station that left several injured.
