Crash and closure

On Saturday, 17 October 2026, shortly before 10:00, a crash involving several vehicles blocked the E25 at Sprimont in Liège province, on the stretch running in the direction of Luxembourg. According to VRT NWS, the crash happened about 25 kilometres south of Liège, on the motorway between Liège and Neufchâteau. Traffic was halted in both directions, and RTBF reported that drivers were sent onto diversions via Sprimont and Aywaille, along the N678, N30 and N633. Emergency services were on site, and local media later reported queues building in the middle of the morning.

An armed officer and explosives

The mayor of Sprimont, Luc Delvaux, told RTBF that the driver of one of the vehicles is a police officer who is armed and has explosive charges, and who threatens to detonate them. 7sur7 reported that possible explosives had been spotted in one of the cars involved. Le Soir, citing SudInfo and RTBF, reported that a man was said to be threatening to set off the explosive material in the vehicle. When Le Soir asked the mayor for more detail, he declined and referred questions to the prosecutor's office, and the procureur du Roi had not yet replied. Police had not confirmed the presence of explosives at the time of the reports.

Police response

Police set up a security perimeter and ordered motorists in the area to abandon their vehicles and move to safety, according to 7sur7 and RTBF. RTBF also reported that people had been told to gather near the exit of the motorway while the zone was secured. The mayor said a crisis cell had been set up in Sprimont to coordinate the operation and to bring the incident under control as quickly as possible. Police confirmed the perimeter but declined to say what kind of accident had taken place. The closure and the perimeter remained in place in the most recent reports.

What remains unclear

Several details remain unconfirmed. RTBF said the information that the motorist is a police officer still needed to be confirmed, and the number of vehicles involved was described only as several. The sources do not give a number of injured people or the condition of the driver. Le Soir reported that an official statement was expected in the coming minutes, but the prosecutor had not responded when its article was published. Further information from the prosecutor or the police had not yet been released in the articles reviewed.