The car of a health care worker was smeared with human excrements in the municipality of Oudenburg in the West-Flanders province, the latest in several reported incidents in Belgium.
On Monday night, a car from an AZ Damiaan Oostende healthcare worker was targeted. All the windows and door handles of the car were stained. The night before, two other cars from people working at the Red Cross had also been targeted.
"Someone is targeting care workers, although I really cannot understand the motivation," said Thibo Bral, secretary of the Red Cross Oudenburg-Jabbeke on Radio 2. "Care workers are the people who are holding up the health care system at this moment, during the coronavirus crisis," he added.
"This is incredibly disrespectful. We even noticed that the faeces were specifically smeared over the sign that identifies the car as a health care worker's car," Bral added.
"This is not so nice, knowing that our care workers voluntarily transport people suspected of being infected with the coronavirus to the hospital," the Red Cross said in a Facebook post, which also shows that faeces were deposited in the organisation's mailbox as well.
"Our caregivers are absolute heroes in this coronavirus crisis. Such sickening actions are really unwelcome after weeks full of stress and work," said Mayor Anthony Dumarey to Het Nieuwsblad. "I would like to call on everyone here to keep an eye on things. The local police are making every effort to track down the perpetrator(s) and punish them severely. As a city, as a society, we absolutely cannot tolerate this," he said, adding that this was the work of "a sick prankster."
"Our intervention team has made the necessary observations on the scene and an official report was drawn up," Annemie Wittesaele, the spokesperson of the local Kouter police zone, confirmed to The Brussels Times. "Our services are following up on the matter," she added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times