Six injured after knife attack at Kurdish demonstration in Antwerp

Six people have been injured after a knife attack at a demonstration in Belgium on Thursday evening, police said.

Two of the victims were in a critical condition in hospital after the incident in the port city of Antwerp near the Operaplein (Opera Square), police spokesperson Wouter Bruyns said.

Bruyns said police apprehended the two suspects who, based on initial findings, had mingled with the demonstrators.

Four of the people who were stabbed were found in the square, with two others nearby in the vicinity of Rooseveltplaats and Sint-Elisabethstraat, local reports suggested.

Police said the incident was being investigated as a case of attempted murder, “not terrorism”, and that officers were looking at CCTV footage to ensure no other suspects had evaded arrest.

The demonstration outside the Opera House, attended by about 50 people, was initially peaceful, according to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

Read more: The Guardian (UK)