French man arrested for driving car into crowds in Belgium

A French national tried to ram a car laden with weapons into a crowd on Thursday in the Belgian city of Antwerp, prosecutors said, a day after a deadly attack in London.

Security forces found a rifle and bladed weapons in his car, and bomb disposal units examined the car.

"Different arms were found in the boot - bladed weapons, a riot gun (rifle) and a container of liquid that is still unidentified," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The suspect was named as Mohamed R, born on 8 May, 1977, has French nationality and is a resident of France, the prosecutor’s statement added.

French president Francois Hollande said it was important to remain vigilant.

"It seemed to involve a French national, with possibly a certain number of weapons in his boot - it's up to the judges to make a statement on that - who was looking to kill or at the very least create a dramatic incident," Hollande said.

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"Therefore we must continue to be on high alert and mobilise all our forces," he added.

The driver entered a busy pedestrianised shopping street in the port city on Thursday morning, police said.

"At about 11am this morning a vehicle entered De Meir at high speed due to which pedestrians had to jump away," a police spokesman said, referring to the street name.

He added the driver was later arrested and additional police and military personnel had been deployed to the centre of Antwerp, but did not give any further details. 

On Wednesday, a British man rammed his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in central London, killing two, before stabbing a policeman to death outside the Houses of Parliament.

He had previously been investigated by police over concerns of links to violent extremism. The London attack was claimed Thursday by the Islamic State group, but it did not provide the assailant’s name.

Last year, 86 people were killed in Nice, France, on Bastille Day, when a Tunisian resident of France drove a truck into crowds of people, an attack also claimed by IS. 

And in December, 12 were killed when a truck was driven into a Christmas market in Berlin.