150 fans burned containers and launched fireworks in the streets of the Belgian capital
The clashes were repeated in towns such as Liège and Antwerp, and even spread to neighboring Holland.
Dozens of people provoked this Sunday riots in the center of Brussels after the World Cup match between Qatar and Belgium against Morocco, destroying vehicles and street furniture, forcing the police to intervene.
The mayor of the city, Philip Close, has condemned the incidents and advised fans not to go to the center in a message on the social network Twitter. “The police put all their means to maintain public order. I have ordered the police to proceed with administrative arrests of the rioters,” he wrote.
The incidents began in the middle of the second half, when some 150 young people gathered in the center of the Belgian capital they set fire to a container and threw firecrackers and fireworks, after which they began to beat the vehicles parked in the area, according to the Belgian public television RTBF.
The images broadcast by the local media show several fans destroying a car, some carrying the Moroccan flag, the winner of the match, as well as burning scooters.
Hundreds of policemen to stop the incident
“There has been the use of pyrotechnic material, the launching of projectiles, the use of sticksfire on the public highway (…) the destruction of a traffic light and a vehicle with its occupant has been surrounded,” the spokeswoman for the central district police, Ilse Van de Keere, explained to the Belgian agency, adding that a journalist was injured in the incidents.
These disturbances have led to the intervention of a hundred police officers, who have used tear gas and two water cannons, and have asked citizens to avoid the center. They have also forced the closure of several metro stations and cut some streets to circulation, as well as impacted public transport.
The police had carried out a wide deployment on the occasion of the match, which ended with a 2 to 0 in favor of the Moroccan team, since in 2017 there had been major disturbances after Morocco’s qualification for the World Cup, which was they ended up with 22 wounded.
This Sunday they also practiced a dozen arrests in Antwerpaccording to the Belgian port city police, who had to use fire trucks at various locations and disrupt traffic in the bustling Borgerhout neighborhood.
Damage in Liège
In Liège, fifty people attacked a police station and broke windows and damaged the lights of service vehicles, while other supporters caused damage to street furniture or vandalized some night service shops.
Incidents also occurred in several Dutch cities after Morocco’s victory over Belgium in the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar.
Mobile police units charged the rioters in the rotterdam centerwhere 500 people had gathered, who threw fireworks and bottles at the agents, according to the police.
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Riot officers also intervened tonight in The Hague to contain the riots, while in Amsterdam they gathered about 500 peoplewho lit small fires and set off fireworks.
There were also some concentrations of fans in Utrecht Y Amersfoortwho lit some small fires and set off fireworks in a festive atmosphere, although a motorbike was set on fire in the second town, according to police