Scherpenheuvel-Zichem (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – An armed man was arrested at an Aldi store in Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, prompting a large police response. Authorities say the motive remains unclear.
An armed individual was reported to have been spotted in the subterranean garage. The man was eventually convinced and taken into custody.
A woman noticed a man sitting in a corner of the supermarket’s basement parking lot this afternoon.
When she approached him to inquire about his well-being, she noticed that he was brandishing a weapon. When she called the store, the police were alerted right away.
“A man had indeed barricaded himself in the underground garage. He had an air gun with him,”
Says Sarah Callewaert of the Leuven public prosecutor’s office, Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, Belgium.
“Because he was sitting in public space with a gun and was behaving strangely, the police were called. The supermarket was also immediately evacuated for safety reasons.”
The crisis was under control in no time. The man gave himself up peacefully. He was apprehended by the police and taken to the station.
There, he will be questioned. What possessed the man is unclear.
How common are such armed incidents in supermarkets in Belgium?
Compared to other forms of crime, such as stealing, which is common and happens every day, armed occurrences in Belgian supermarkets are scarce. With 24,021 stealing offenses reported in 2023 alone, theft is the main security problem in Belgian supermarkets. Even though they are rare, violent armed situations do happen occasionally and typically garner a lot of media and police attention.
In February 2025, for instance, police opened shot on a suspect who tried to escape in a car following a robbery at a shop in Schaerbeek. In the 1980s, a string of brutal supermarket thefts in Belgium—known as the Brabant Killers case—caused 28 fatalities.
