A video showing a police officer slapping a handcuffed woman across the face during an arrest has prompted widespread anger in Belgium.
The footage, viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media, shows three officers trying to place the woman inside a police van.
When the handcuffed woman refuses to enter, a male officer appears to strike her across the face before forcibly pushing her into the vehicle.
The incident took place in the municipality of Nivelles, in Belgium’s Walloon Brabant province. After the video circulated online, viewers across the country criticised what they described as an excessive use of force.
“The police have no right to slap,” one viewer wrote on X.
Another commenter said: “It’s exactly these behaviours why the police are no longer respected.”
A third user accused Belgian police of violating EU laws and human rights by beating civilians, while another wrote: “This is absolutely not right.”
Other social media users defended the officer, arguing that he had been left with no alternative after the woman resisted attempts to put her in the van.
A Belgian police officer is seen moments before allegedly slapping a female detainee across the face
The officer appears to swing his hand towards the woman’s face
Footage appears to show the officer slapping the woman before pushing her into the police van
“You can’t maintain order if criminals aren’t afraid of the police… I don’t see anything wrong here at all,” one X user commented.
Another wrote: “They’ve put on the handcuffs, so why would you refuse to get in the car after that moment? The goal is to provoke the police, create violence, and turn the unjust into the justified—there’s no other purpose anyway. The police did the right thing.”
“Applying violence in moderation seems acceptable to me,” another X user added.
Nivelles Mayor Bernard De Ro said an internal investigation had been opened to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The investigation will review what happened before the footage was recorded and why the police officer used force against the woman.
Prosecutors urged the public not to form opinions on footage circulating online, saying: ‘An investigation that begins on social media is not conducive to a thorough inquiry.’
It is currently not known why the woman was detained in the first place.
The violent incident involving a police officer comes just days after a French cop came under investigation after a video emerged showing him throwing a man to the ground, causing him to hit his head.
The cop appears to push the woman into the police van, this video grab shows
The 29-year-old man died less than two weeks later, following the incident on June 21 at a music festival in Carcassonne, France.
At first, authorities denied that there was any link between the officer’s actions and the man’s death.
‘Based on the current state of the investigation, there is no (…) causal link between the events recorded and the death that occurred 13 days later,’ the prosecutor’s office said.
‘An investigation into the causes of death is underway, while the autopsy carried out on July 9, 2026 ruled out any suspicious injuries indicating the intervention of a third party and indicated the most likely toxic cause.’
But an investigation into the intentional use of violence by a person exercising public authority was launched after the video sparked public outrage.
The clip, shared widely on social media, shows five police officers surrounding a man before one officer grabs him by the collar and throws him to the ground.
The man is then seen curled up in a fetal position, clutching his head as angry bystanders attempt to intervene.
Local media reported that the man suffered an open wound to his head and was later taken into care by emergency personnel.
