Protesters and police clash at Brussels attacks shrine

BRUSSELS — Belgian riot police fired water cannon on Sunday to disperse far-right football hooligans who disrupted mourners at a shrine for victims of the Brussels attacks, as police arrested several suspects in a series of new raids. In scenes that compounded a week of grief for Belgians, black-clad protesters shouting anti-immigrant slogans moved in on the makeshift memorial at Place de la Bourse where hundreds of people had gathered in a show of solidarity. Under-fire Belgian authorities meanwhile detained four terror suspects after carrying out 13 raids as they seek to round up a web of militants with links to the carnage in the Belgian capital and to attacks and plots in France. The clashes between the far-right demonstrators and police underscored the tensions in Belgium after Tuesday’s Daesh suicide attacks on the airport and the metro system in which 35 people died and 340 were wounded. “This is our home” and “The state, Daesh accomplice” around 300 hooligans chanted, using an alternate term for IS, as they gathered near the square by the stock exchange building, AFP journalists witnessed. Some trampled on the carpet of flowers, candles and messages left at the site by mourners in recent days while at least one wore a mask with a well-known far-right symbol. Police urged the mourners, who included some Muslims, not to provoke the hooligans, but some chanted “Fascists! Fascists! We’re not having it!“ Riot police with helmets and shields corralled the hooligans before dispersing them with high power water jets, and marshaling them onto trains out of the city. Around 10 people were arrested, police said. The mourners gathered despite the fact that organizers had earlier called off a “March Against Fear” in Brussels on Easter Sunday at the request of Belgian authorities, who said police needed the resources for the attacks investigation. Meanwhile, the Belgian Crisis Center said 31 people had died in the airport and metro attacks, up from an earlier toll of 28. The figure does not include the three suicide bombers. All but three of the victims have now been identified, it said. — AFP