Two teens among victims as gunman fires on Liege Christmas market
A man armed with grenades and guns has killed three people and himself in an apparently random attack on a Christmas market in the Belgian city of Liege.
The victims were two teenagers and an elderly woman. Dozens of other bystanders were injured in the incident in a busy square packed with shoppers.
Prosecutors said the gunman, named in reports as Nordine Amrani, had a criminal record involving guns, drugs and sex offences.
The gunman was on his way for police questioning when he launched the attack.
Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders said he killed a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl and a 75-year-old woman. Seventy-five people were wounded, among them a two-year-old girl who was clinging to life.
In in the initial chaos reports said up to three men had taken part in the attack, but the Interior Ministry later confirmed only one was involved, adding the incident was not terrorism-related.
Men, women and children fled down the streets of the city centre - some still carrying shopping bags as ambulances and police descended on the area.
Belgian prosecutors said the killer was known to police and had set himself up on a rooftop in the square before opening fire.
All traffic was told to leave the city centre and all shops in the area were closed, some with many customers stranded inside. Police helicopters flew over the city and a medical post was set up in the courtyard of the palace of the Prince Bishops court house located on the site.
Emergency medical teams were called in from as far away as the Netherlands.
One report said that the man lobbed grenades into a crowd at a bus shelter and opened fire at about 12.30pm. Police were on the scene quickly and sealed off the square.
The Place Saint-Lambert and the nearby Place du Marche host the Liege's annual Christmas market which consists of 200 retail cabins and attracts some 1.5 million visitors a year.
