At least six people died and 37 were injured of varying degrees when early this Sunday morning a driver ran over while a carnival parade was taking place in the town of Strépy-Bracquegnies, about 40 kilometers south of Brussels and close to the border with France.
It is not clear whether the hit was intentional or accidental, but the mayor of La Louvière, to which Strépy-Bracquegnies belongs, Jacques Gobert, assured that the driver, who was arrested and is being questioned, could perfectly have stopped the vehicle. Among the injured there are 10 serious and 27 with minor injuries. Another person who was in the car was also taken to a detention center. The two are originally from La Louvière, a town near the place of the outrage, and born in 1988 and 1990.
“A car going at full speed ran over the crowd that had gathered to see Gilles pick up. The driver continued on his way, but we intercepted him, ”said the mayor in statements to the newspaper Le Soir. According to Fabrice Collignon, presenter of the RTL radio station present at the scene at the time of the tragedy, dramatic scenes were experienced. “There was music and laughter and three seconds later it was all screaming. It was terrible,” he recounted. According to him, there were about 150 people participating in the carnival.
“There are no words”
Witnesses affirm that the vehicle appeared “out of nowhere” in the middle of the collection celebration of Gilles, a traditional character of the Binche carnival (whose celebration has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO) and other towns in the south of Belgium. “There are no words, it is horror. Arriving at the place, seeing those bodies scattered on the road, people suffering… You cannot imagine that this could exist and, unfortunately, it is what is happening. There are no words, it’s dramatic,” Gobert said.
The mayor activated the emergency plan, while the Belgian Minister of the Interior, Annelies Verlinden, offered her condolences to the friends and relatives of the deceased. “What was a big party turned into a drama,” she wrote on Twitter. Verlinden is in contact with the mayor to rule out a terrorist attack, and the case is already in the hands of the Belgian prosecutor’s office. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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