Brussels (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – A person was found dead at 4:30 a.m. at Fontanas metro station in Brussels. STIB suspects they got trapped in shutters. Police and MIVB are investigating. Station briefly closed.
According to VRT News, early this morning, on July 16, 2025, at the Fontanas metro station in central Brussels, not far from Annessens station, a dead person was discovered at the entrance to the metro station. It was around 4:30 a.m., and when the station workers began opening the metro in the morning, they found a dead body at the entrance caught between the metal shutters.
The Brussels public transport company MIVB (STIB) thinks the user may have attempted to swamp the station outside of operational hours. The company explained the user was trapped in the automatic shutters, which only open when it is safe to do so in the morning. These heavy shutters may have crushed the person while moving, causing deadly injuries.
What led to the death at the Brussels Metro station entrance?
Emergency workers came quickly after the person was found, but they could not help anymore. The person had already died before help arrived. No one knows who the person is. Nothing was found near the body to show who they might be.
STIB spokesperson Laurent Vermeersch said it is still not clear how the death happened. The police are now checking security camera videos and will also look closely at the shutter system to see if it had a problem. They want to know if the cause was a mistake by a person or something wrong with the machine.
Due to police and emergency responders beginning their work, the Annessens metro station could be temporarily closed. Travelling early in the morning was delayed, but the metro station reopened later once the area was cleared.
Everyone has to wait for the additional results of the investigation. They said the results should explain more details about who the victim was, why they were there, if some type of safety rules need to change, or if something else needs to change for this not to happen again.
