A heartbreaking tragedy shook the Jewish community in Antwerp Wednesday morning when an 8-year-old Jewish boy, Yehuda Alter Weiss a”h, was struck and killed by a police vehicle while riding his bicycle to school.

The niftar, from a Belzer family, was a grandson of Harav Eliyahu Weiss shlit”a of Yerushalayim and Harav Gershon Padwa shlit”a.

The accident occurred around 9:45 a.m. on Provinciestraat, between Ketsstraat and Milisstraat. According to eyewitnesses, a police van responding to an emergency with sirens blaring was driving at high speed when it attempted to swerve around a stationary car. In doing so, the vehicle struck the child, who had been crossing at a pedestrian crosswalk on his bike.

Despite immediate life-saving efforts by Hatzolah and police, Yehuda Alter was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.

Yehuda Alter, a Belzer chossid had been on his way to his cheder, Machzikei Hadas D’Chasidei Belz, on Van Spangenstraat at the time of the accident.

“The entire Jewish community is devastated,” said Tzvi Weingarten, a close friend of the family. “I see the mother—who is expecting—walking her children every day. I daven with the father in shul. This is a chassidish family, and the pain is immense. The whole kehillah is grieving with them.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)