Brussels - The Belgian capital was tense and on high alert yesterday after a weekend of clashes between gendarmes and North African immigrants sparked by police shooting dead a suspected drug dealer of Moroccan origin.
Mr Mahfoud Romdhani, a Brussels counsellor, said he was not surprised at the riots because nearly half the immigrants in the district were aged under 25, there was an acute lack of education and 25 per cent of those of working age were unemployed. Some 200,000 immigrants, mostly of North African origin, live in and around Brussels, often in the poorer areas.