BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 29: Belgian riot police fired water cannon on Sunday to disperse far-right football hooligans who disrupted mourners at a shrine for victims of the Brussels attacks, as police arrested several suspects in a series of new raids.
In scenes that compounded a week of grief for Belgians, black-clad protesters shouting anti-immigrant slogans moved in on the makeshift memorial at Place de la Bourse where hundreds of people had gathered in a show of solidarity.
Under-fire Belgian authorities meanwhile detained four terror suspects after carrying out 13 raids as they seek to round up a web of jihadists with links to the carnage in the Belgian capital and to attacks and plots in France.
The clashes between the far-right demonstrators and police underscored the tensions in Belgium after Tuesday’s Islamic State suicide attacks on the airport and the metro system in which 31 people died and 340 were wounded.
“This is our home” and “The state, Daesh accomplice” around 300 hooligans chanted, using an alternate term for IS, as they gathered near the square by the stock exchange building, AFP journalists witnessed.
Some trampled on the carpet of flowers, candles, and messages left at the site by mourners in recent days while at least one wore a mask with a well-known far-right symbol.
