A convicted gun fanatic threw hand grenades and opened fire on a square bustling with Christmas shoppers in the centre of the Belgian city of Liège, killing five people, including himself, and wounding at least 122, some critically.
Hours after failing to show up for police questions about his preoccupation with guns, the 33-year-old unleashed a lunchtime attack on Place Saint Lambert, which was hosting a Christmas market that attracts 1.5 million visitors a year.
Last night, King Albert II and Queen Paola visited Liège, a tough, post-industrial city in the east of the country, which was in a state of shock after the attack. Initial fears that a trio of terrorists could be responsible were ruled out by police and prosecutors, as was any speculation that Belgium could be contending with a Norway-copycat killing spree. "It was an isolated act which has sown sorrow in the heart of the city," said Willy Demeyer, the mayor of Liège, the main city of Belgium's francophone smaller half, Wallonia.
Police said there were no indications that the dead assailant, a local man, had been involved with terrorism. Nor was there evidence of any ideological motivation. He threw three hand grenades while on the busy square, one at a bus shelter, killing two teenage students instantly.
An elderly woman died later of her injuries, as did a 23-month infant.
The Liège prosecutor's office said 122 people were injured in the shootings and explosions, with many of them reported to be in a grave condition in local hospitals and in the Netherlands nearby.
The gunman was named as Nordine Amrani, a 33-year-old Liègeois who was known to be a "gun freak", according to the police. He was given a jail term of almost five years after police officers raided his metal workshop three years ago and found a dozen firearms, including an AK-47 machine-gun, and 9,500 gun parts. He was also found guilty of drug dealing after cultivating 2,800 marijuana plants.
Amrani arrived on the square with hand grenades, a rifle and a revolver.
He mounted a platform on the square and lobbed three grenades, opened fire with the rifle, and then shot himself with the handgun, according to police.
With local bloggers and Twitter networks going into overdrive, there were detailed "reports" on the alleged trio who had supposedly carried out the attack, with one said to have been arrested and the other allegedly fleeing through a bus tunnel after spraying the square with Kalashnikov fire.
Police said these reports were entirely inaccurate.
Place Saint Lambert is the city centre's busiest traffic hub and the location of the bus station as well as the Palais de Justice, which houses the main court and prison compound. Witnesses spoke of panic and blood-spattered streets as mayhem erupted at about 12.30.
Hervé Taverne, a middle-aged man working in the district, told Belgian radio: "We were just coming out of the justice building and we saw someone throwing a hand grenade. It all happened so quickly that we ran for our lives. I grabbed a youngster inside, back into the building.
"After that various wounded were brought in. We heard gunshots outside. Meanwhile we heard that there were several perpetrators, but we only saw one. We were also told that this was a [prison] escape operation."
A delivery man, Dimitri Degryse, was driving past when the gunman opened fire. "I heard an explosion and I thought there was something wrong with my car. Then a second grenade went off, I saw smoke and heard several shots.
"People were lying bleeding on the ground. I stopped to help them. We tried to get the wounded off the street as quickly as possible."
Gaspard Grosjean, a reporter for a Liège newspaper, arrived on the scene moments after the attack. "We saw people with bullet wounds in their shoulders, their hands," he told Reuters. "I see people completely scared, people are crying, everyone is on their phones."
Belgian mobile operators reported a surge in calls at lunchtime in the city centre, causing disruption to the networks.
The royal couple joined the country's new prime minister, Elio Di Rupo, and other senior government figures gathering in Liège.
For Di Rupo, a Socialist of Italian extraction who is from Wallonia and became Belgium's first native French-speaking prime minister in more than 30 years, the tragedy is his first test. He was sworn in as prime minister only last week following Belgium's world record in being unable to form a government – 589 days.
While police, prosecutors and politicians all emphasised that the Liège tragedy was no terrorist or politically-inspired assault – "he has no history of terrorist acts," the Liège prosecutor, Daniele Reynders, told journalists – there was no persuasive motive given to explain the rampage.
