Gunman kills three in Belgium

LIEGE, BELGIUM— A knife-wielding prison inmate on a 48-hour leave stabbed two police officers Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege, seized their service weapons and shot them and a bystander to death before being mowed down by a group of officers, setting off a major terror investigation into the country’s most savage assault since the 2016 suicide attacks.

Prime Minister Charles Michel acknowledged the assailant, who had a lengthy criminal record that included theft, assault and drug offences, had appeared in three reports on radicalism, but was still allowed to take a leave from prison.

“Is our system working when we see that these kind of people are running free?” asked vicepremier Alexander De Croo, echoing the thoughts of many in a nation where armed police and gun-toting soldiers still patrol the streets in the wake of the March 2016 attacks that left 32 people dead at the Brussels airport and subway system.

Tuesday’s attack happened outside a café in the eastern city of Liege when the assailant crept up on the two female officers from behind and stabbed them repeatedly.

“He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died,” the Liege prosecutor’s spokesperson, Philippe Dulieu, told reporters.

Dulieu said the attacker then shot and killed a 22-year-old teacher outside a nearby high school. He then took two women hostage inside the school before confronting police massed outside.

“He came out firing at police, wounding a number of them, notably in the legs. He was shot dead,” the spokesperson said, adding that the hostages escaped unharmed.