Charleroi Molotov Cocktail Attacks Revenge?

1 February 2007

BRUSSELS — Mayor of Charleroi Léon Casaert and Francine Biot, chief of the regional police, published their reaction Thursday morning on the Wednesday night’s attack on police stations near Charleroi. Four police stations had been targeted with Molotov cocktail bottles.

In Biot’s opinion, the attack may have been connected with what happened earlier this week.

Sunday night a police agent chasing a thief shot him dead. This was just one of the incidents involving grave measures taken by the police against crime suspects lately and may have caused a wave of protest and desire for revenge, Biot said.

The four Molotov cocktail attacks occurred one after another and were aimed at several different police stations in the area. Lodelinsart station was the first one attacked at 9:58 p.m. Four minutes later another attack took place at Saint-Gustave street in Marchienne-au-Pont. The attackers apparently made a mistake, throwing the Molotov cocktail bottle into the window of a childcare institution and not the police station next door. Seven minutes later the commissariat at Jumet was hit. Another eight minutes passed and the Damprey commissariat was attacked.

Mayor Casaert said, however, that no direct connection between the attacks and the actions of the police earlier this week have been established yet.

Subject: Belgian news