Around 2,000 people showed up towards the end of a warm and sunny day to attend „La Boum“ (the party) in the Bois de la Cambre park, local police said, even though the organizers had revealed days earlier that their invitation on social media was a hoax. Local media put the number of people at about 5,000.

Hundreds of police, many in riot gear and some on horseback, broke up a knot of would-be revelers beside a lake in the park with back-up from water cannon trucks and tear gas.