“I would like to sincerely thank the military police officers who acted so efficiently this morning. Relieved that no one was injured in the knife incident. The man has been arrested and we are closely monitoring the situation with the police,” De Croo wrote in a post on his X account.

Brussels Police told the Belga News Agency that the officers overpowered the man, said to be armed with a knife, after he threatened them.

“The man’s motives are currently unclear,” they said.

The terrorism general threat level for the country, based on the seriousness and probability of an attack, is ” 3 – serious“, according to The Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis.

CUTA raised the level from 2 to 3 following an October 2023 shooting in which two Swedish nationals were killed and one was injured as more than 35,000 soccer fans gathered in Brussels ahead of a Belgium-Sweden European Championship game.

Belgian SWAT team officers later shot and killed the 45-year-old suspect in the shooting who was believed to have been inspired by Islamic State.

De Croo is still serving as acting prime minister seven months after resigning in June after his Flemish Liberals and Democrats party suffered a major defeat in a general election.

The country is awaiting the formation of a new coalition government involving seven parties headed by the right-wing New Flemish Alliance but leader Bart De Wever, tasked with forming a new Federal Government, missed a Christmas deadline for striking a deal, as the wrangling dragged into the new year.

Negotiations were said to be stalled on budget disagreements with De Wever looking for cuts of around $20.8 billion to get the federal government budget deficit back below 3%, with tax cuts proposals and healthcare funding the main sticking points.