The Belgium newspaper Derniere Heure reported Saturday that a guard at a nuclear plant was found dead after being shot several times and having his security credentials stolen. The paper called the murder an event “completely ignored” by the media.
According to the report, the guard was found dead in the bathroom of his home Thursday. The man’s stolen security credentials were deactivated soon after the discovery.
A general view of the Rue Fort in Charleroi, Belgium, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. A residence located on the street was named by the Belgian prosecutors office on Wednesday as a safe house for the plotters of the Paris attacks. The residence was rented in Sept. 2015 under a false identity and was searched by police in Dec. 2015. Inside the residence the investigators found mattresses and fingerprints of attackers Bilal Hadfi and Abdelhamid Abaaoud. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
The nuclear plant where the guard worked is located in the judicial district of Charleroi, Belgium, the same city in where the safe house for plotters of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks was discovered in December.
Thursday’s incident is particularly unsettling after the terror attacks that hit the country Tuesday, March 22. Derniere Heure noted that the murder of a nuclear plant guard raises particular concern “because nuclear power plants are among the potential targets of the terrorist[s]” responsible for the attacks in Brussels Tuesday and in Paris last November.
Sources told Deriniere Heure that authorities involved in the investigation may have contributed to the delayed reporting, as they hoped to track any usage of the stolen security badge. The outlet reported that “following the attacks of 13 November 2015, the issue of security around our nuclear plants remains more relevant than ever … .”
The investigation into the murder is ongoing.
