Twenty years ago, little Luna (2.5) died after Hans Van Themsche went on a murderous rampage through Antwerp | Region

Twenty years ago today, Hans Van Themsche, then just eighteen years old, carried out his deadly raid in the city center of Antwerp. The toddler Luna Drowart (2.5) and her Malian babysitter Oulematou Niangadou (25) lost their lives. Turkish Songul Koç (46) was seriously injured. Antwerp was in shock by so much senseless violence. Twenty years later, Luna’s grandmother looks back at VTM NIEUWS without hatred.

Van Themsche lived in Wilrijk, but went to school in Roeselare. He was expelled from boarding school on May 10, 2006, because he had smoked in his room. The teenager took this very seriously. He confided to his friends that he wanted to “die with honor”: he would first shoot five to ten migrants and hoped that he would then die in a shootout with the police. A day later, on May 11, 2006, he partially shaved off his long hair. Dressed in a long black coat and combat boots, he took the train to Antwerp. There he bought a hunting rifle from an arms dealer at the Lombardenvest and began his deadly raid.

He found his first victim at the Pottenbrug. A woman wearing a headscarf was sitting on a bench reading a book when she was shot. Songul Koç was seriously injured, but survived the attack. Van Themsche continued his journey with icy calm. In Zwartzusterstraat he crossed a black woman and a toddler on a tricycle. He turned around and shot the woman in the back first. When the little girl started crying, he fired at her too. Luna Drowart and Oulematou Niangadou died on the spot.

He collided with a police officer in the Lange Doornikstraat. He repeatedly asked him to put down his weapon. Van Themsche shouted at the officer to shoot him in the head. He then pointed his gun at the police officer, who shot him in the stomach. Thanks to the officer’s actions, there were no more victims that day. The murders shocked Antwerp and by extension the whole of Belgium. The government responded a few weeks later by tightening the gun law to put a stop to impulse purchases.

Van Themsche appeared before the assize court in October 2007, which sentenced him to life imprisonment for two murders and one attempted murder. The jury also found it proven that he had acted out of racism. In June 2025 he was released from Oudenaarde prison under strict conditions. He was admitted to the closed ward of a psychiatric institution, where he receives intensive treatment.