Nine detained after crowd attacks police during Ostend street disorder

Updated 7 September 2026 — Police detained nine people after a reported fight near Guldensporenlaan in Ostend escalated on Sunday evening, 6 September, into a confrontation involving a crowd of about 40 people. Objects and fireworks were thrown towards officers and rubbish was set alight, according to Ostend police spokesperson Simon Fiers, as quoted by Het Nieuwsblad. No injuries had been reported by Monday morning.

The police response began at about 19:00 after a resident reported that two people were fighting in the Nieuwe Stad district, Het Nieuwsblad reported. Two patrol teams initially attended. Fiers said a caller had described what appeared to be an organised fight, possibly involving someone acting as a referee, although police could not confirm that account at the scene.

Officers found approximately 40 people gathered around the reported fight. Police asked them to leave, but the instruction was not followed, according to Fiers. The situation then intensified: members of the crowd threw objects and fireworks towards the intervention teams, prompting police to request reinforcements. The group subsequently split up and moved through the neighbourhood’s network of paths and side streets.

VRT NWS separately reported that eight people were placed under administrative arrest after police were targeted with fireworks. Het Nieuwsblad reported nine arrests in total and said police regarded those detained as having played important roles in starting or inflaming the disorder. The difference between the arrest totals and legal categories was not fully explained in the reports available by Monday lunchtime.

Police had restored calm by about 23:00, according to Het Nieuwsblad, although patrols remained in the area to conduct checks and some people were still present after midnight. Investigators are now examining footage circulating online. Police are also checking reports that the fight had been announced and streamed on social media, with viewers encouraged to attend.

A reported assault on a local resident may constitute a separate incident, but Fiers said police had not yet established whether the circulating images came from the same evening or involved the same people. The investigation must also determine who threw individual objects, who started the fires and whether further arrests or criminal charges will follow.