Belgian city mourns victims of racist shooting

The Belgian city of Antwerp on Saturday mourned the victims of Thursday's shooting for racist reasons.

Large beds of flowers can be seen at the scene of the senseless shooting in the center of Antwerp. Hundreds of passers-by paid tribute to the victims, said VRT news.

Official flags in the city were flown at half-mast.

An 18-year-old gunman killed a pregnant black woman and a 2- year-old white toddler on Thursday. The woman of Malian origin worked as an au pair and was looking after the toddler.

A woman of Turkish descent survived an earlier attack by the same man, but was heavily injured.

The man might have killed more people if he was not stopped by a police officer who shot him in the stomach, said the prosecution.

The man is believed to have racist motivations. He allegedly deliberately targeted immigrants in his shooting spree.

"That (white) girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said on Friday while being questioned by the public prosecutor in hospital.

Hundreds of people on Saturday were queuing to express their sympathy to the victims' families and to protest symbolically against any act of senseless violence.

Many of them laid down flowers or cuddly toys and left a message.People of all ages expressed their anger, disbelief and sadness.

Meanwhile, the families of the victims have called on everyone to remain calm. The family of the injured Turkish woman said they are afraid to go outside.

Ergun Top, a lawyer who lives in the street where the shooting took place, visited the Turkish victim's family together with Flemish Prime Minister Yves Leterme on Friday and said they don't feel safe anymore.

"Her sister also wears a headscarf. She was in tears as she was asking me whether she can still go out on the streets or take her children to the park," Top told VRT radio.

Thursday's killings followed an apparently racially motivated attack in Brugge last Saturday when two men were beaten up by several skinheads. One of the victims, a 50-year-old black Frenchman, was still in a coma by Friday.

Source: Xinhua