From the Belgian and EU press:
Four dead in armed attack in Liège
FlandersNews, 13 Dec 2011
Four people have been killed and seventy-five people injured in an armed attack in the heart of the Walloon city of Liège on Tuesday lunchtime. Grenade were thrown and shots fired at a group of people that were waiting at a bus shelter on the busy Place Saint-Lambert. One of those killed, Nordine Amrani (32), was involved in carrying out the attack.
A total of sixteen people were taken to hospital suffering from injuries or shock.
Three of those injured in the attack are reported to be in a life-threatening condition. Among them is a child.
Witnesses had reported that a group of men carried out the attack.
However, the Federal Crisis Centre says that only one person was involved in the attack.
The Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo (Francophone socialist) and the Interior Minister Joëlle Milquet (Francophone Christian democrat) are to visit the scene.
The Medical Disaster Action Plan has been put into force and the police have sealed off the city centre.
The police asked people in Liège city centre to stay indoors. Anyone on the streets was advised to seek shelter in shops and public buildings.
An emergency first aid post was set up in the courtyard of the Prince-Bishops’ Palace on the Place Saint-Lambert. Witnesses sought shelter in Liège’s courthouse. The emergency services from Liège received reinforcements from Verviers (Liège province), Namur and the Dutch city of Maastricht.
Previous conviction
Nordine Amrani was sentenced to 58 months in prison in 2008 after a search of his home in the rue Bonne Nouvelle in Liège discovered 9,500 weapon parts, 10 complete weapons and 2,800 cannabis plants.
The assailant’s car has been found on the Place Saint-Lambert. A bomb disposal team from the Heverlee Barracks in Flemish Brabant has been called to scene.
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuw...Li%25C3%25A8ge
Belgium: Five Dead In City Centre Grenade Attack
EuroNews, 13 Dec 2011
Shoppers fled for their lives on Tuesday as a lone gunman brought terror to a Belgian city centre, killing four passers-by and injuring 75 others.
Teenage boys aged 15 and 17 died as well as a 20-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman as the killer opened fire and threw grenades from the roof of a bakery in Liege.
Authorities say he was Nordine Amrani, a 33-year-old local man, due to attend a police hearing today.
“The perpetrator is well known to the police and justice system,” Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders told reporters at a news conference. “He has been convicted of weapons offences, handling stolen goods, drugs and morality offences. He is not known for any terrorist-related acts. The investigation will continue so as to fully explain what motivated the perpetrator.”
Belgium’s King Albert II has travelled to the eastern city where several people are seriously hurt, among them a toddler fighting for its life.
Amrani himself is dead, having either committed suicide or been killed accidentally by one of his own explosive devices.
http://www.euronews.net/2011/12/13/b...renade-attack/
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