The following morning, Lassoued was tracked down to a café in the Schaerbeek municipality where he was shot by Belgian police and died on the way to hospital.

The supporters were on their way to the King Baudouin Stadium, about 5 km (3 mi) away, where the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier between Belgium and Sweden was being played.

[14] Soon after the attack a video of a man speaking Arabic and claiming responsibility for the shooting was circulating on social media.

[5] A spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said that the investigation was concentrating on a terrorist motive, with Swedish nationals having been targeted, possibly on account of the recent Quran burnings in Sweden.

[15] The three victims were all Swedish football supporters who had travelled to Belgium to watch their national team play in the Euro 2024 qualifier.

[7] Abdesalem Lassoued (1 September 1978 – 17 October 2023) was sentenced in Tunisia in 2005 to more than 26 years in prison for crimes including attempted murder.

[22] He escaped from prison in 2011 and entered Europe via Lampedusa, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, making the journey on a small boat with other migrants.

[22][15] In the decade following his arrival in Europe, he is known to have sought asylum in Belgium, Italy, Norway and Sweden, all of which rejected his claims.

[23] Living under a false identity in Sweden, he was arrested for drug-related offences in 2012 and was deported back to Italy after serving a two-year prison sentence.

[25][26] After the death of Lassoued, the federal prosecutor told reporters that he was thought to have been acting as a lone wolf rather than as a member of a terrorist group.

Both national football associations approved the decision as it had no impact on which teams qualified from Group F.[38] On 20 October the Belgian government announced that the attack was officially classed as terrorism.

[41] On 27 October, a man was arrested in Málaga, Spain, on suspicion of involvement in "activities linked to organised crime" along with Lassoued.