Driver of vehicle, arrested after jumping a red light, claimed car contained explosives, but was later described as ‘mentally unwell’

Belgian police shot at a vehicle during a chase through Brussels before arresting the driver and clearing the area after he falsely claimed that his car contained explosives.

The driver, who was unarmed, was arrested at the scene. He was later described by the Belgian prosecutors office as mentally unwell. “It’s a mentally unstable person,” a spokeswoman for prosecutors said. “The military did not find any explosive in his vehicle.” The spokeswoman added said that the suspect was from Rwanda and was not known to have a police record.

The incident began at about 5pm on Tuesday evening when local police chased a vehicle that had gone through at least one red light in Anderlecht, west of Brussels. Officers fired their guns at the vehicle’s wheels after it became stuck in traffic and the driver reversed into a police car.

The car was finally stopped in the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, an area with a troubling history of links to terrorists inspired by Isis, when it struck a second police car that had been called to the scene. A police spokesman said: “We got the driver out, and he immediately told us that there were explosives inside.”

A large security perimeter was established around the car, trapping 400 to 500 people in their homes.

Two controlled explosions were heard by witnesses after both the army and bomb disposal units attended the scene as a precaution, but no explosives were found. The heavily protected team could be seen removing plastic bags containing some items from the car, which was surrounded by a number of police vehicles.

Radicalisation in Molenbeek: 'People call me the mother of a terrorist' Read more

A spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutors, Ine van Wymersch, said: “When the police arrested him, he claimed to have explosives, so not to take any risk, the army has been called in to check.”

Brussels has been on high alert since 32 people were killed in suicide attacks in March 2016. Many suspects linked to those attacks and the November 2015 massacre in Paris lived in or regularly passed through Molenbeek.

In June, a man from Molenbeek of Moroccan descent was shot dead by a soldier as he attempted to set off a suitcase bomb containing nails and gas bottles in Brussels’ central station. Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt later said that many lives had been saved by the technical failure of the device.