Various houses and cars damaged by « Fireworks Bomb » in Schaerbeek: « We first thought of a gas explosion » (inland)

The residents of the Sleeckxlaan, near the Hamoirpark, were startled by a loud explosion on Thursday morning. Different houses and parked cars were damaged by the explosion. The windows of different houses died, just like the windows of a few parked cars.

Just after six o’clock a bomb package had exploded for the facade of a company in the street. A department of the Kortrijkse Textielgroep Vandewiele is located in the targeted building. Industrial weaving machines are mounted in the building. « We first thought of a gas explosion, » says Bernadette de Bethune, General Manager at Vandewiele.

Only when they looked at the images of the surveillance cameras did they see at Vandewiele that something else is going on. « It shows how a masked man left a package at the threshold of the front door of our company at 6.13 am. Then he ran away again. A minute later the explosion followed. »

« Different from our neighbors have suffered damage. Even across the street, » says De Bethune. « Fortunately, the damage is not too bad with us. Our front door is partly dented in, and the windows of our basement have been broken. »

Fireworks

On Thursday morning, many police investigators were on the spot. According to the police, the perpetrators could have used pyrotechnic material (fireworks). « Fortunately no one was injured. The investigation just started to clarify the circumstances and motives behind this incident, » said Audrey Dereymaeker, spokesperson for the Brussels Noord police zone.

It is reminiscent of earlier incidents in Antwerp, in which the drug environment used heavy fireworks arrows to view buildings of others from the environment.

« We have no suspicion about what could be the intention of this, » says De Bethune. « No one has recently been fired with us. We exclude a dissatisfied employee. I suspect that the perpetrator might have a message for someone else in the street. And that they chose our building, because no one is present at 6 o’clock. »

Read too. “Police seize 5,300 pieces of fireworks with candidate Les Engagés:“ Before my daughter’s marriage ”

Forbidden in Brussels

The Kortrijkse loom producer has had a studio in Schaerbeek for a long time. « The parts are produced in Kortrijk, but mounted in Schaerbeek, » says De Bethune. « We choose not to move that. Because of the people who work there. »

« The use of pyrotechnic devices is not only dangerous. It is also forbidden, » warns the Schaerbeek police. Brussels Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort (PS) issued a decision exactly one year ago, on 2 April 2024 that prohibits the use, property and transport of all fireworks in the capital.(cell)