BRUSSELS • Police in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp said yesterday that they had detained a man who tried to enter the main pedestrianised shopping street in a car at high speed.
The incident occurred late in the morning.
A police spokesman said the driver was later arrested.
He was identified as a French national.
"A vehicle with French plates has tried to drive at high speed into the Meir (shopping street)," Antwerp police chief Serge Muyters told a news conference.
The federal prosecutor's office, in a statement, named the suspect as Mohamed R., born on May 8, 1977, of French nationality and a resident of France.
Security forces found a rifle as well as bladed weapons in the car, prosecutors said.
A rapid intervention force from Antwerp police was able to stop the car, prosecutors said in the statement.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE