BELGIUM: Two infants and an adult killed in knife attack

Record ID: 353829

  • Title: BELGIUM: Two infants and an adult killed in knife attack
  • Date: 23rd January 2009
  • Summary: DENDERMONDE, BELGIUM (JANUARY 23, 2009) (REUTERS) POLICEMAN OUTSIDE CRECHE VARIOUS CRECHE EXTERIORS SIGN POINTING TOWARDS CRÈCHE RED AND WHITE TAPE IN FRONT OF CRÈCHE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ENTERING AND LEAVING CRÈCHE POLICE HELICOPTER FLYING ABOVE POLICE TAPE EXTERIOR OF COMMUNITY CENTRE WHERE THE FAMILIES AND SCHOOL CHILDREN HAVE BEEN RELOCATED VARIOUS EXTERIORS MAN CARRYI
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVADZOKRRI6UYEV5KOJLUB89FS6L
  • Story Text: In Belgium, two children and an adult have been killed and 10 other infants injured at a crèche by a knife wielding assailant.
    A man with a white painted face and blackened eyes fatally stabbed two infants and a woman at a child care centre in western Belgium on Friday before cycling away.
    Eleven other children and two other women workers were wounded and being treated at local hospitals, authorities said. Three of the children were in a critical condition.

    "Obviously the atmosphere inside is unbelievable because many parents still don't know whether their child is injured or not, so I think the police and the services are doing whatever they can to identify the children.
    They are taking pictures of the children in the hospitals and those pictures are transferred over here and by those means they are trying to identify all the kids injured," Kris Zandanne, a family friend told Reuters Television.
    The assailant arrived at the crèche at around 10 a.m. (0900 GMT) saying he wanted to ask a question, but then leapt into one of the rooms to launch his attack before stabbing more victims in another room.
    The man cycled away before being arrested at around 11.30 a.m.
    The crèche, in the town of Dendermonde, 30 km (20 miles) west of Brussels, held 18 children aged up to 3 years and 6 adults at the time.
    Belgian media said that the man in his 30s was a psychiatric patient, but authorities did not confirm this, saying only that he would appear before a magistrate later on Friday.
    Hospitals had made photos of the wounded available to concerned parents to help them find their children.
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