ATTACKER SHOT DEAD AFTER POLICE OFFICERS ARE WOUNDED

TWO female officers were attacked and wounded by a man wielding a machete and shouting “Allahu Akbar” outside the main police station in the Belgian city of Charleroi yesterday, police said.

The assailant was shot by a third officer and later died of his wounds, authorities said. The attacker’s identity and motive were not immediately known, Belgian prime minister Charles Michel said, but added the “first indications” suggested it was an act of terrorism.

“Thoughts are with the victims, their relatives and police officers,” Mr Michel posted on Twitter. The prime minister broke off his holiday in the south of France and was returning to Belgium for an emergency meeting of the government’s National Security Council on Sunday.

Mr Michel told RTL television in an interview that he has also asked for an assessment on whether there is an increased threat to Belgian internal security. Belgium has been on high alert in the wake of the March 22 suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State extremist group that killed 32 people in Brussels.

Charleroi police spokesman David Quinaux said the attacker carried the weapon in a sports bag, and pulled it out as he arrived at a security checkpoint outside police HQ in the southern Belgian city just before 4pm.

One of the two police officers, both of whom were described as experienced, received several deep slashing cuts to the face, Mr Quinaux said. The other was slightly wounded.

Both officers are now “out of danger”, Charleroi police announced on Saturday evening on Twitter.

A third officer at the scene shot the attacker, who died of his wounds at a hospital, officials said.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said it was not immediately clear whether the assault, which he denounced as an “act of barbarism” was the deed of a single person or something more elaborate.

“We don’t know if this is the action of a lone wolf,” Mr Jambon told RTL. He said he didn’t yet know the identity or motivation of the attacker.

Belgium has been at Level 3 on a four-point terrorism alert scale since the attacks in Paris on November 13 that killed 130. Many of the Paris attackers, who pledged allegiance to the IS group, lived in Belgium.

Last weekend, a 33-year-old man identified only as Nourredine H. was arrested on charges of participating in a terrorist group and planning “terrorist murders” following searches in Liege and the Mons region.

The attack yesterday took place near a wooden building erected outside the police station to provide an additional layer of security.

Paul Magnette, the city’s mayor, said the checkpoint succeeded in preventing the machete-wielding man from reaching the building and causing more havoc.