ANTWERP: Belgian security forces arrested a man Thursday after he drove into a shopping area at high speed in the port city of Antwerp, officials said.
Authorities found a rifle and bladed weapons in the car after the suspect, identified by prosecutors as 39-year-old Mohamed R., tried to flee and was detained in the northern city.
The man was "under the influence of something" but it was not clear what substance, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
Authorities were not certain if it was an attempted attack and the incident remained under investigation, several Belgian sources added on condition of anonymity.
The Belgian prosecutor's office said Mohamed R. was a French national, but a French police source told AFP he was a Tunisian legally residing in the French city of Lens near the Belgium border.
"He has an address in Lens and as far as we know at the moment, he is not known for large-scale criminal acts," the source said.
"His only previous convictions are minor, such as drunk driving or drug use. He was not on the (French) list of known extremists and according to the initial findings of the investigation, had not been flagged up as being radicalised," the source added.
Pierre Camarre, the man's neighbour, told AFP he was about 1.85 metres tall "with no beard and wore Western clothes."
The incident jangled nerves following attacks at the Orly airport in Paris and Wednesday's carnage in London, and coming the day after the first anniversary of the Brussels suicide bombings that killed 32 people.
"A vehicle with French plates has tried to drive at high speed into the Meir (shopping street) so that pedestrians had to jump aside," Antwerp police chief Serge Muyters told a news conference.
"Our army colleagues forced the driver to stop, but he pulled away and ran a red traffic light. We sent a special forces team and the car and the driver were stopped," he added.
"A man in camouflage was taken away."
Images on social media showed investigators searching a burgundy-coloured vehicle near the bank of the Scheldt river. -- AFP