Monday, October 26, 2015

A MILITARY barracks was on lockdown this morning after a masked gunman rammed the front gate with a car and exchanged fire with Belgian soldiers.

By Nick Gutteridge

PUBLISHED: 09:46, Mon, Oct 26, 2015 | UPDATED: 11:25, Mon, Oct 26, 2015

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The gunman was said to be on the loose after ramming the car - thought to be full of explosives - into the front barricade at the Flawinne military base outside Charleroi, 50 miles south of Brussels.
Local media reported that he then began a gunfight with paratroopers stationed at the base before fleeing on foot. TV channel Canal C spoke of a "huge police presence" at the scene and said "several shots" had been fired.

The station added that the attacker was thought to have been rumbled when their car was searched at the checkpoint, and that the vehicle was found abandoned in the nearby town of Belgrade.
Images later emerged purporting to show the attacker's car abandoned in a field near the scene. The photographs show a black Ford Focus hatchback with its front end visibly caved in from a heavy impact.

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The attacker reportedly fled on foot

A view of the front barricade at the Flawinne barracks

The attack happened at the Flawinne barracks in Belgium

It was unclear this morning what the motive for the attack might be. The barracks is home to Belgium's elite Second Commando Battalion paras unit, which previously served in wartorn Rwanda.

A spokesman for the local prosecutor's office said: “No one was hurt, it seems. The man is on the run.
“If I look at it from an outsider’s point of view, it seems incomprehensible. Why would you attack a military barracks? There are plenty of weapons there to strike back.”

TWITTER/CanalCTelevision

Local media reports said shots were fired at the base

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The motive for the attack was at first unknown

Belgium's anti-terror brigade foiled a plot by Islamist fanatics to attack police officers in January, killing two men in one of several raids across the country.
Since then the country has been on high alert, with soldiers guarding important sites including the European Union headquarters, embassies and Jewish schools.