A car parked in the heart of Brussels' European quarter burst into flames on Thursday, capturing the attention of curious onlookers as firefighters rushed to the scene to quench the flaming vehicle, in an incident which left the car destroyed and its owner dumbfounded.
Videos and images shared on social media showed the burning vehicle from different angles and at different moments, with some footage showing the car engulfed by the flames while others showed its charred and steaming remains after the firefighter's intervention.
The vehicle, a small, black Citroen, was parked outside the headquarters of the European Commission, on the neighbourhood's traffic-heavy Rue de la Loi.
The exact moment when the vehicle caught fire remains unclear, but the first reports of the incident on social media appeared a little after 14:00 on Thursday — one of the hottest days of a heatwave battering Europe and which saw Belgium break the record for the hottest temperatures ever recorded.
According to reports on Twitter, the vehicle's owner is "safe and sound" but seemed to have no explanation for his car's apparent fit of spontaneous combustion, which he said had just "suddenly burst into flames."
The reasons leading to the incident remain so far unclear.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
