A man (aged 30) armed with a starter pistol who attacked several people and injured a De Lijn controller on Friday evening was apprehended later that night.
The individual began harassing people near a De Lijn stop on Veldstraat. Upon spotting the man with a weapon in his pocket, the De Lijn employee and some bystanders restrained him until police arrived. The controller was injured during the incident.
Though the man was armed with a starter pistol, there are no reports of him threatening anyone with it, stated the East Flanders prosecutor’s office. He is set to be questioned on Saturday.
Separately, two underage individuals exhibited aggressive behaviour towards a De Lijn controller during a ticket inspection in Gent on Friday evening. One minor is suspected of assaulting the controller; he was detained while the other is still being sought. Unlike the Veldstraat incident, this was a direct assault on a De Lijn employee.
Following the attacks, De Lijn staff at the Gentbrugge depot spontaneously went on strike on Saturday morning. As a result, no trams nor buses are anticipated to operate in Gent today.
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According to trade union leaders, the instances of both physical and verbal attacks are on the rise in the Flemish city. The strike action will disrupt public transport circulation this Saturday. It is not yet clear how long the services will be interrupted.
No buses or trams will leave the depot, said Bart Reyns of the ACV Public Services union. A meeting between Gent’s Mayor Mathias De Clercq and the trade unions is scheduled for 7 May to seek solutions to this rise in attacks. However, in light of the incidents that took place on Friday, the union official said that public transport staff could not wait for these talks and “an impromptu action has become inevitable”.
Shuttle bus services have been arranged by the organisers of the Fantasy Facts Convention, which is being held this weekend at the Flanders Expo. Approximately 30,000 people are anticipated to attend the event. The shuttle buses will transport attendees between Ghent-Saint-Pierre railway station and the convention hall.
