Liege attack: Gun rampage in Belgian city - three killed as police ambushed by killer
TWO POLICE officers have been shot dead in Liege, Belgium, with the attacker also killing a passer-by and taking a woman hostage before being "neutralised".
The gunman opened fire on a police patrol in the centre of Liege, Belgium, killing two officers and injuring two others.
He is believed to have then taken a woman hostage as more police rushed to the scene.
The city's official Twitter account later confirmed a third person, a passenger in a car, had also been killed.
Police officials said the attacker has now been "neutralised".
La Libre Belgique newspaper quoted a police source as saying the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" - "God is greatest" in Arabic - and RTBF said investigators believed the attacker may well have had a terrorist motive.
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Officials have not confirmed a motive for the deadly attack but terrorism is being considered.
Belgium's anti-terrorist crisis centre was monitoring the situation, Interior Minister Jan Jambon said on Twitter.
A spokesman for the terrorism response centre said: “It is one of the questions on the table but for the moment all scenarios are open.”
One witness told Belgium’s RTL news website: “I am Avenue Rogier in Liege, the whole neighbourhood is blocked, as well as the boulevard Piercot.
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“There are police everywhere and running people.”
Another said: “There was a gunshot in Liege, armed police everywhere on the Boulevard d’Avroy.”
Photos show police and ambulance crews in Boulevard d'Avroy. Video showed people fleeing the street as gunshots ring out.
Belgium’s minister of the interior is at the scene.
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He Tweeted: “Our thoughts are with the victims of this serious act in Liege. We are currently assessing what happened exactly.”
A spokeswoman for the Liege public prosecutors office confirmed that two police officers had been shot dead and the gunman "neutralised" but could not confirm other details.
The city’s official Twitter account said: “Avroy Boulevard shooting is over. Schoolchildren in the neighbourhood are safe and not injured.
“Three people lost their lives - two policemen and the passenger of a car. The attacker was shot dead.”
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Belgium has been on high alert since a Brussels-based Islamic State cell was involved in attacks on Paris in 2015 that killed 130 people and Brussels in 2016 in which 32 died.
In 2011 Liege was hit by a horrifying murder-suicide bomb-and-gun attack which left six dead, including three children.
Nordine Amrani killed his girlfriend in their apartment before throwing grenades and firing a rifle at passers-by in the city's main square. He then committed suicide at the scene.