The gunman who killed two Swedish football fans in Brussels on Monday had escaped from a Tunisian prison.

Abdesalem Lassoued was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2005 for crimes including attempted murder, according to Belgian prosecutors.

On the Italian island of Lampedusa, he arrived illegally after escaping in 2011.

In August 2022, Tunisian authorities asked Belgium to return Lassoued to his country. Despite receiving the extradition request, Belgian officials failed to process it.

A “monumental and unacceptable error with dramatic consequences” led to the resignation of Belgium’s Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne on Friday.

Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian, started shooting at passersby with an assault rifle in central Brussels on Monday 16 October.

After chasing people into an apartment building hallway, he shot and killed two Swedish football fans and injured another. An Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The gunman was found at a cafe near his home in Schaerbeek, northern Brussels, on Tuesday morning after a manhunt. The police shot and killed him.

During his resignation speech, Mr Van Quickenborne apologized sincerely to the victims and their families. “I don’t want any excuses.”

According to him, he wanted to take “political responsibility for this unacceptable mistake”.