Merckx monument in Brussels vandalised

Vandals damaged a commemorative stone slab in Brussels made in honour of Belgian cycling great Eddy Merckx, local authorities said on Wednesday.

The monument depicts the face of five-time Tour de France winner Merckx, who at 80 remains one of Belgium’s most respected figures.

“This Wednesday morning, residents were shocked to discover that the monument in tribute to Eddy Merckx, located in Bouvreuils Square, had been vandalised,” Woluwe-Saint-Pierre mayor Benoit Cerexhe said in a statement, adding that he was “outraged”.

“Who could want to attack an athlete, a symbol of our country? Nothing justifies such an act.”

Cerexhe’s chief of staff told AFP that video surveillance cameras would be analysed to try to identify the perpetrators and the monument would be repaired without delay.

Merckx’s parents used to own a shop on that square in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, a municipality in eastern Brussels.

The monument was inaugurated in March 2019 to mark the Tour de France’s departure from Brussels later that year.