An investigation has been launched after a man died in the hospital on Sunday following his arrest by police in Antwerp.
In a video apparently shot in the Flemish city on Sunday, a man can be seen lying on the ground and being held down by two police officers. It has been widely shared on social media alongside the hashtag #MurderInAntwerp, which on Monday was trending on Twitter in Belgium.
A petition denouncing the incident and calling for justice has also been launched.
“We refrain from any comments on this matter for the time being,” Antwerp police said on Twitter, also using the hashtag #MurderInAntwerp. “A judicial investigation is underway into the cause of the man’s death. The victim did not die on the street, but was taken to hospital in a critical condition.”
According to local media, the 29-year-old man was from the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean.
A police spokesman told newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that the man had not been “choked to death,” a claim made by the person who shot the video, but was instead “resuscitated for 20 minutes and taken to hospital in a critical condition.”
The spokesman also said that police were called because bystanders had reported the man was throwing furniture at people on a café terrace. “When our people came to the scene, they overpowered him and handcuffed him to the ground. Because he kept stamping, they also crossed his legs,” he said.