Two suspects identified in investigation into riots following 'La Boum' event

Two suspects identified in investigation into riots following 'La Boum' event
Many young people were involved in police intervention of the La Boum events earlier this year. Credit: Belga

Two suspects have been identified in the investigation into the riots following the "La Boum" festival which took place in the Bois de la Cambre in Brussels on 1 April.

The two suspects, a young man, and a young woman, were among the four people featured on the wanted poster, which was issued by police on 30 April, and which has since been updated to only include the remaining two suspects.

Both are suspected of having injured police officers or damaged police vehicles. This was later confirmed to the Belga news agency by the public prosecutor's office.

"The public prosecutor's office can state that a few people have been identified and that the investigation is still underway," spokesperson Martin François told VRT News. 

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During the first event, which was announced as an April Fools’ joke on Facebook, between 1,500 and 2,000 people gathered in the park, of which most of them not wearing face masks and did not respect the social distance rules.

It was announced the park would be closed, and when people refused to leave, the police used water cannons, police horses, pepper spray, tear gas, and a drone, leading to dozens of injured police officers and over 20 arrests.

The second unauthorised event, "La Boum 2", which took place at the same location on Saturday 1 May, resulted in 132 people being arrested as the park was once again evacuated, for which police used several water cannons, and dozens of people being injured.

Last Saturday, a test edition of the "La Boum" events was expected to take place to demonstrate that outdoor events with young people have little impact on the spread of the virus, however, the ‘L’abîme’ collective, the group behind the events, announced that it would no longer organise the third edition on Friday night.

“We throw in the towel in the face of so much incomprehension and hatred, after all we have sacrificed for the cause,” the collective said. “It has finally finished us, despite all our efforts. L’Abîme is done, long live La Boum," the group said on Facebook.


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