Police stepped up their manhunt Wednesday for a Belgian soldier with suspected extreme-right views and access to rocket launchers who went missing after threatening public figures -- including a renowned coronavirus expert.

Special police units deployed overnight near 46-year-old serviceman Jurgen Conings hometown of Dilsen-Stokkem in the northeast of the country, near the Dutch border.

The suspect's abandoned car was found nearby with "four anti-tank rocket launchers and some munition", the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said. 

Jurgen Conings

Conings, whose Twitter profile describes himself as a "Belgian Air Force soldier who likes fitness, body building and boxing", already figured on a list of extremists monitored by Belgium's anti-terrorist agency.

He was one "around 30" Belgian military personnel with known extremist sympathies, officials said, but he nevertheless remained on active duty, training Belgian troops ahead of deployment on overseas missions -- with access to weapons.

Asked about the situation by Flemish broadcaster VTM, Prime Minister Alexander de Croo admitted that it was "unacceptable" that the fugitive had been allowed to access the weapons, and Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said an inquiry would be launched. 

Conings' police wanted notice shows a thick set man with a shaved head and in his Twitter profile he appears stripped to the waist and showing off an imposing physique. 

A spokesman for the prosecutors, Eric Van Duyse, told AFP that the solider was "well trained but seems to have ideas associated with the extreme right".

The soldier had disappeared with weapons, he said, and had left behind a letter containing "worrying elements" including threats to the state and public figures.

- 'An acute threat' -

Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told VRT television: "There are signs that he is violent and, over the course of the past 24 hours, evidence has emerged that shows this man presents an acute threat."

Dutch police said that they were monitoring the situation but that they had no reason to believe Conings had crossed the border.   

Among the people Conings has threatened is Marc Van Ranst, a leading academic who has become a public figure in Belgium during the coronavirus crisis.

He is an active social media user and his views have made him a target of conspiracy theorists, Covid-sceptics and with the Flemish far-right.

In an interview with AFP in September, Van Ranst said he had fallen foul of the nationalists and received death threats after speaking out against racism and xenophobia.

"I couldn't stay silent about that and the right wing parties hate me," he said.

Already living under police protection, he and his family have been moved to a place of safety. 

In its annual report published last year, Belgium's civilian security and intelligence agency expressed concern about a growing right-wing extremist threat in the country.

In particular, it noted that these groups are increasingly seeking weapons in order to prepare for violent action. 

But it added that: "The main threat comes from those individuals known as 'lone actors', who become radicalised and plan violent actions on their own."