Six shootings reignite Brussels debate over fragmented policing and drug violence
Six shootings across Brussels in recent days, including three in Saint-Gilles, have renewed pressure on authorities as criminologist Jelle Janssens argues that fragmentation and weak prevention—not an absolute shortage of officers—are central obstacles.
In 30 seconds
- An automatic weapon was fired near Place des Deux Bancs at about 21:00 on 24 August; nobody was injured.
- Six shootings were reported across Brussels in recent days, including three in Saint-Gilles.
- Federal police recorded 57 Brussels shootings from January through July 2026, with two deaths and 21 injuries.
- Janssens says the six Brussels police zones have about 7,000 officers and support staff combined.
Updated 26 August 2026, 10:30 CEST — : A gunman fired an automatic weapon near Place des Deux Bancs in at about 21:00 on Monday, 24 August, and fled without injuring anyone, Mayor Jean Spinette told Belga. Customers in a nearby pizzeria took shelter on the floor. The Brussels Times reported that it was the third consecutive day of gunfire in the municipality and the second shooting at that location in three days.
On Saturday, a man suffered a non-life-threatening leg wound at Place des Deux Bancs, according to Spinette. Early Sunday, a bullet entered a bedroom near Porte de Hal while its occupant was in bed; she was physically unharmed. The Brussels Times reported that police later arrested two suspects after further shots were heard during the night from Sunday to Monday. Authorities have not publicly established that all the incidents involved the same perpetrators.
The latest violence forms part of six shooting incidents reported across the capital in recent days, three of them in Saint-Gilles, according to Het Nieuwsblad. On 20 August, Brussels-South police also found a person with a bullet wound to the leg in ’s Brogniezstraat, BRUZZ reported. The Brussels prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, supported by the federal police laboratory and a ballistics expert.
Criminologist Jelle Janssens of Ghent University told Het Nieuwsblad that Brussels does not primarily lack personnel. The six local police zones together have about 7,000 staff, including 5,585 officers and 1,117 support personnel, according to figures cited by the newspaper. Janssens identified divided command structures, uneven information-sharing and responsibilities split among six police zones, 19 municipalities and several levels of government as operational weaknesses.
His diagnosis differs from demands for immediate reinforcement. The mayors of Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles and called for a national plan against drug-related violence, while the Belgian Workers’ Party requested additional personnel and funding, BRUZZ reported. Janssens supports the planned police-zone merger but says enforcement alone cannot remove the recruitment pool available to criminal networks. He advocates sustained neighbourhood work and investment in vulnerable young people.
Where this is happening
View on map Brussels →The longer trend remains severe. Federal police figures reported by Het Nieuwsblad recorded 57 Brussels shootings in the first seven months of 2026, leaving two people dead and 21 injured. Janssens warned that without prevention, the same acute problem will return next year. Investigators must now determine which recent incidents are connected, while political attention turns to coordination, the police merger planned for 2028 and the balance between immediate security operations and longer-term prevention.
What to do
Residents and workers in Saint-Gilles, Anderlecht and Kuregem should follow instructions from local police around active incident scenes and avoid cordoned streets while investigations are under way. The immediate policy choices concern patrol deployment, investigations into criminal networks and funding for prevention; no new individual obligations or costs are identified in the article. The next fixed institutional date is 2028, when the six Brussels police zones are scheduled to merge. Until then, readers should expect security operations to remain divided among existing local zones and federal services.
Impact
Regional — The incidents directly affect Saint-Gilles, Anderlecht and the wider Brussels-South police zone. They are also intensifying pressure on federal and regional authorities to coordinate operations across municipal boundaries.
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationsJanssens: reorganise and prevent
Ghent University criminologist Jelle Janssens argues that Brussels already has substantial police staffing. He identifies fragmented command, poor coordination and insufficient investment in neighbourhoods and vulnerable young people as the deeper problems.
Local mayors: provide national reinforcement
The mayors of Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles and Forest are demanding a national action plan against what they describe as a drug war. Their immediate priority is stronger federal support against armed networks operating across municipal boundaries.
PTB-PVDA: add personnel and resources
The Belgian Workers’ Party says the response requires more personnel and funding. That position challenges Janssens’s contention that the central problem is how existing capacity is organised and deployed rather than its overall size.
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