Alexander De Croo video threat leads to arrest of Belgium ex-soldier

A Belgian ex-soldier has been arrested in Norway on suspicion of a terrorist plot after a video on social media showed him shooting at a photo of Belgian PM Alexander De Croo.

The PM did not cancel a public event on Friday but police searched the suspect's home in the north-eastern Belgian town of Leopoldsburg.

The video posted early on Friday showed a man, wearing black, in a wood firing four shots at a photo of the PM.

He has been identified only as Sam H.

Text accompanying the video says the Belgian government must resign and that if it does not "there will be bloodshed", Belgium's De Standaard news site reports.

Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said the 29-year-old had been dismissed from the army over his links to a biker gang and had been under surveillance. His military security pass was cancelled in May 2022.

The anti-government video included the man claiming in English to be in Norway and "determined to survive".

Commenting on the threat during a visit to Pepinster in eastern Belgium, Mr De Croo said: "I listen to our security services and their assessment is that there are no grounds for me to take shelter... or to be worried."

Belgian media point to a similar case in 2021 involving a far-right soldier, Jurgen Conings, who fled his barracks heavily armed and was described as a serious threat. He was reported to be hostile to Belgian state officials and to a leading virologist.

A huge police and military manhunt was launched for Conings, focused on a forest in Limburg, not far from Leopoldsburg. After more than a month of searching his dead body was found and the conclusion was that he had shot himself with a pistol.