Belgian female police officers killed in knife and gun attack
● Two officers and a bystander die before attacker shot dead by police
A knife-wielding man stabbed two female police officers yesterday in the Belgian city of Liege, stole their service weapons, and shot them and a bystander dead in an attack prosecutors fear could be terror-related.
Justice minister Koen Geens said the assailant, who was later killed by police, was released from prison on a twoday leave on Monday.
Mr Geens described him as a multiple repeat offender who had been incarcerated since 2003.
Liege police chief Christian Beaupere said at a news conference that the killed officers were 45 years old and 53 years old, the latter the mother of twins.
Four other officers were wounded in the attack, one of them seriously with a severed femoral artery.
State broadcaster RTBF identified the suspect as Benjaminherman.herman,abelgian national born in 1982, had a criminal record that included theft, assault and drug offences, RTBF reported.
The federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
Earlier, Liege prosecutors’ spokesman Philippe Dulieu said the man crept up on the two officers from behind carrying a knife and stabbed them several times.
“He then took their weapons. He used the weapons on the officers, who died,” Mr Dulieu said. The two police handguns had a total of 17 bullets.
Mr Dulieu said the attacker then shot dead a 22-yearold man in a vehicle that was just leaving a parking place outside a nearby high school. The attacker then took a woman hostage inside the school.
“Liege police intervened. He came out firing at police, wounding a number of them, notably in the legs. He was shot dead,” Mr Dulieu said.
A senior official at the federal prosecutor’s office said that “there are indications it could be a terror attack”.
Despite this, Belgium’s crisis centre said it saw no reason to raise the country’s terror threat alert for now.
When asked about the report that the attack was terrorrelated, Liege city spokesman Michel Firket said: “I know nothing formal about that. The police is doing its investigation. There are no formal conclusions.”
A spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, Laurence Comminette, told reporters that the children at the school were all safe.
Belgium’s King Philippe, prime minister Charles Michel and the country’s justice and interior ministers travelled to Liege to confer with local officials.
“I want to offer my government’ssupportforthevictims, for the victims’ families,” Mr Michel said.
Yves Stevens of Belgium’s federal crisis centre said that security in Liege is under control, and that there was no reason yet to raise the nation- al terror threat level. “There is absolutely no confirmation yet that the incident is terrorrelated,” Mr Stevens said.
Video posted on Twitter by a person claiming to be a witness showed people running in the area. About six gunshots could be heard.
Belgian police and military have been on alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people at the Brussels airport and subway system in 2016.
It is not the first time Liege has been hit by a similarly violent attack. In December 2011, a man with a history of weapons and drug offences left home with hand grenades and guns before he lobbed the grenades into a square filled with Christmas shoppers and fired on those who escaped. Five were killed, including the assailant.
Prime Minister Theresa May denounced yesterday’s “cowardly” attack in a message on Twitter. She said: “My thoughts are with the victims of today’s cowardly attack in Belgium and their grieving families. The UK stands resolute with our Belgian allies against terror.”