Twenty years on, Belgium remembers Antwerp racist shootings
Twenty years ago, on 11 May 2006, Belgium was shocked by a racist shooting attack in the centre of Antwerp. The gunman, 18-year-old Hans Van Themsche, killed a Malian childminder and a two-year-old girl, and seriously injured another woman.
Van Themsche had travelled by train from western Belgium to Antwerp after being expelled from his boarding school the day before. He bought a hunting rifle in the city and began shooting shortly before midday.
His first victim was Songül Koç, a Belgian woman of Turkish origin, who was reading on a bench near the city centre. She survived after being shot in the chest.
A short time later, Van Themsche shot dead Oulematou Niangadou, a 24-year-old childminder from Mali, and Luna Drowart, the two-year-old girl in her care. They were attacked in the Zwartzustersstraat area, near Antwerp’s historic centre.
The attack ended when police inspector Marcel Van Peel confronted the gunman. After Van Themsche pointed his weapon at the officer and shouted “shoot me dead”, the inspector shot and arrested him.
The killings caused national outrage in Belgium and led to stricter gun laws to make impulsive firearm purchases more difficult.
In 2007, a Belgian assize court sentenced Van Themsche to life imprisonment for two murders and one attempted murder. The jury ruled that the crimes were racially motivated.
In 2025, he was released from prison under strict conditions and transferred to a secure psychiatric institution for treatment.
In Zwartzustersstraat, a memorial stone still commemorates the death of Luna and Oulematou 'N'Doei' Niangadou. "It's a 3-minute walk from my home and I'm going to hang a bouquet there every year on May 11", Luna’s grandmother Suzanne Van Well told VRT NWS last week. "I'm not trying to think about the fact that my granddaughter was murdered here, but rather that she was happily riding her bicycle.”
#FlandersNewsService | Hans Van Themsche during his trial in 2007 © BELGA PHOTO NINA FRANCESCA