Belgian police hunt Jewish Museum killer as 2 French Jews are assaulted
May 25, 2014 -- Updated 1322 GMT (2122 HKT)
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2 dead in shooting at Jewish museum |
Two of those killed in
Saturday's attack are Israeli and the third is French, deputy public
prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch told reporters in Brussels.
The Israelis were a couple in their 50s from Tel Aviv, Israel's Foreign Ministry said.
Another seriously injured victim, who is still hospitalized, is Belgian, according to Van Wymersch.
Belgian authorities are
hunting the suspect, believed to have been acting alone, who entered the
museum and carried out the attack, Van Wymersch said.
Investigators hope the public will help to identify the suspect, who the images show was armed and well-prepared, she said.
A person who was detained
Saturday soon after the shooting is considered a witness and not a
suspect, Van Wymersch added. That witness was not seen in surveillance
video recorded during the attack, she said.
The circumstances of the
shooting have raised suspicions that it may have been an anti-Semitic
attack, but no motive has been determined. Van Wymersch said it was too
early to determine whether the attack was an act of terrorism or
motivated by anti-Semitism.
On Saturday, Belgium's Interior Ministry raised its terror alert level in the wake of the attack.
Belgian Interior
Minister Joelle Milquet told a news conference that the security threat
level was at its highest at locations frequented by the Jewish community
across the country. This measure is precautionary, she added.
The European Jewish Congress also decried the attack, the group's president, Moshe Kantor, said in a statement.
Kantor is to hold urgent
talks with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, the group said Sunday,
and has already met with Milquet and community leaders.
He is quoted as saying
the attack was "horrific but not surprising" and urged action by
European governments to tackle extremism and hate speech.
"Attacks on Jewish
targets in Europe do not exist in a vacuum, but are part and parcel of
an overall climate of hate and incitement against Jewish communities,"
Kantor said.
"Anti-Semitism begins in
the public domain, it gains international legitimacy and becomes
normative even in our national parliaments but it always ends in killing
Jews."
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Jewish men targeted in France
In neighboring France,
two Jewish men were assaulted late Saturday as they were leaving a
synagogue in Creteil, outside Paris, the French Interior Ministry said
Sunday.
Two men were involved in
the aggression against the two Jewish men, who are bruised, Interior
Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said in an interview with CNN
affiliate BFMTV.
Interior Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve instructed police and other authorities to strengthen
security at Jewish sites while looking for the perpetrators of
Saturday's incident, which he strongly condemned, according to the
ministry.
In the wake of the
attack in Brussels, Cazeneuve reaffirmed his determination to fight
those who commit murderous acts and spread racism as well as well as
anti-Semitism, the ministry said.
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Anti-Semitism worldwide
A global survey released in May by the Anti-Defamation League reported on the levels of anti-Semitism found in 102 nations.
Belgium received a 27%
index score in the survey. The index score represents the percentage of
adults in a country who answered "probably true" to a majority of the
anti-Semitic stereotypes tested. Belgium has an adult population of
about 8.7 million.
The ADL said one-fourth of adults worldwide are "deeply infected with anti-Semitic attitudes," according to a CNN.com report on the survey.
France had the second
highest index score in Europe, with 37%, although that was well below
Greece, with 67%. Germany had a score of 27%, Spain 29%, Sweden 4% and
the United Kingdom 8%. The United States was given an index score of 9%.
CNN's Elwyn Lopez contributed to this report
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