Two people have been shot dead in the Belgian capital Brussels on Monday evening, police have said.

Belgium’s prime minister later confirmed the victims were Swedish. Prosecutors say they are treating the shooting as terrorism.

The Belgium-Sweden Euro 2024 qualifier football match being played in the city has been abandoned, Uefa said.

The gunman fled the scene and is still at large. Brussels has increased its terror threat to the highest level.

A spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor said another person had been wounded in the attack.

"Go home and stay at home as long as the threat has not been eradicated," Eric van Duyse told Reuters, adding that the attacker claimed to be inspired by Islamic State.

A video posted on social media showed an Arabic-speaking man claiming he carried out the attack in the name of God.

The man in the clip said he had killed three people. The federal prosecutor’s office confirmed it has seen the footage but cannot say whether he is the gunman.

Federal prosecutors in Belgium have since said that a terrorism probe has been opened following the shooting on the Boulevard d’Ypres.

Share this article: