A 30-year-old Somali national attacked soldiers patrolling Boulevard Emile Jacqmain in central Brussels on Friday.
Brandishing a machete and yelling “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great!, the jihadist war cry in Arabic) while swinging the weapon, the attacker managed to lightly wound one soldier before he was shot and critically wounded. He later died in the hospital.
Belgian soldiers have regularly patrolled the streets of Brussels since last year’s terror attacks in which more than 30 lost their lives.
Friday’s attack is being viewed by authorities as a terrorist incident. The attacker arrived in Belgium in 2004, according to the BBC. A resident of Bruges, he was granted asylum after five years and received citizenship in 2015.
Police found among his possessions a fake gun and two copies of the Qur’an.
Brussels is the home of the headquarters of the European Union.