Nordine Amrani Attacks In Belgian City Leaves 5 Dead, 122 Wounded

A lone attacker armed with guns and explosives killed at least three people and injured scores more before taking his own life in the Belgian city of Liège on Tuesday. In a terrifying resemblance to the Breivik massacre in the summer, a Belgian man goes on a shooting spree as youth exit their schools, killing a baby and several others.

It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack in the busy Place Saint-Lambert square, the central entry point to downtown shopping streets in the city in eastern Belgium. The attack prompted hundreds of shoppers to stampede down old city streets, fleeing explosions and bullets.

On Tuesday a Liege hospital announced that a 17-month-old girl had become the fourth victim of the shooting spree, after two teenage boys and a 75-year-old woman were earlier confirmed killed. Officials said at least 120 others were also wounded in the attack, which occurred 90km east of Brussels. Some 52 people were treated for injuries by medics at a field hospital set up near the scene, the prosecutor said, while others went to hospitals in the area.

Police in Belgium have discovered a woman's body at the home of a gunman who went on the rampage in the city of Liege, killing four people and himself.

"It was found in a shed which he used, notably to grow cannabis," Liege's prosecutor general, Cedric Visart de Bocarme, told Belgian public radio, RTBF. The authorities are trying to determine what motivated Mr Amrani to go on his killing spree.

Mobile phone videos taken in the aftermath of the attack showed a dozen people lying on the ground covered in blood. The attacker threw several explosive devices – either heavy-duty firecrackers or grenades – then opened fire on the crowd in at least two bursts, witnesses said.

Public prosecutor Daniele Reynders was to address questions ranging from the killer's fate to news of victims in a critical condition, or how closely Belgian authorities had followed Amrani during a year under caretaker government, at a 9:00 am Liege press conference.