First fatality in spate of accidents involving Brussels metro shutters

A man died over the weekend after getting stuck in a roller shutter at Rogier metro station in Brussels – the first fatality but not the first time in recent weeks that a person became trapped in the shutters.

“The fire brigade, medical services, police and Stib intervened for a person stuck in a roller shutter at Brussels' Rogier metro station,” said Brussels fire brigade spokesman Walter Derieuw.

“The unfortunate person was trapped by the upper part of their torso. After he was freed, an unfortunately fruitless resuscitation attempt was immediately made.”

The victim died on the spot and Derieuw said the circumstances are the subject of an investigation.

“It concerns a 33-year-old man from Rwanda who was presumably sleeping against the roller blinds of the Rogier metro station,” federal police spokesperson An Berger told VRT NWS.

But Stib spokesperson Cindy Arents said the man “tried to enter the metro station just before the mechanical roller shutter opened. When that roller shutter then went up, he got trapped and unfortunately died”.

The metro station was closed to the public for about an hour before reopening.

While this is the first time a person has died after becoming trapped in the roller shutter, it is the third time someone has been caught in them in just a week and a half.

A person who was heavily intoxicated had to be freed from a roller shutter at the Parvis de Saint-Gilles metro station and another had their leg stuck in the Porte de Hal metro station (pictured). Back in March, yet another person was trapped in a shutter at Porte de Namur station.