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Place Saint-Lambert

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Belgian police revealed that a real arsenal was uncovered during a raid of Liege killer Nordine Amrani’s home during October 2007, which includes two rocket launchers, hunting rifle and several other powerful rifles, ammunition, and what appears to be a flak jacket.

Nordine Amrani, 32, who on Tuesday murdered 5 people and wounded 125 others, also used his home in the city of Liege as a cannabis factory, with police finding more than 2,800 plants during the raid.

Wednesday, Nordine Amrani’s lawyer said he carried out the attack because he feared being sent to back to prison for a sex crime.

The gunman, a convicted criminal, who was due to marry his long-term girlfriend, used grenades and a semi-automatic rifle to cause carnage in the Belgian city before turning a revolver on himself.

Among his victims was a 45-year-old cleaning lady whom he shot dead near his home on Tuesday morning, as well as a 17-month old baby boy.

Defense lawyer Jean-Francois Dister said Nordine Amrani, a Belgian from a Moroccan background, was on parole and was due to answer a summons about allegedly “sexually molesting” a young woman.

Nordine Amrani is thought to have attacked the unnamed victim after driving alongside her in his van. Its number plate was captured by CCTV.

One of Nordine Amrani’s numerous previous convictions was for rape, for which he had been given a two-year suspended sentence in 2003.

If convicted again for a sex crime, he would have had to serve it.

This would have also meant his girlfriend, a nurse called Perrin Balon, finding out about the sex allegations against him.

Nordine Amrani, 32, who on Tuesday murdered 5 people and wounded 125 others, also used his home in the city of Liege as a cannabis factory, with police finding more than 2,800 plants during the raid

Nordine Amrani, 32, who on Tuesday murdered 5 people and wounded 125 others, also used his home in the city of Liege as a cannabis factory, with police finding more than 2,800 plants during the raid

“He feared being returned to prison,” said Jean-Francois Dister.

“He called me twice on Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning about it.

“What worried him most was to be jailed again. According to my client it was a set-up by people who wanted to harm him. Mr. Amrani had a grudge against the law.

“He thought he had been wrongfully convicted.”

After Tuesday’s attack, the bag Nordine Amrani used to carry his haul of weapons was found to still contain several loaded magazines, as well as a number of live grenades.

An enquiry has been launched into why he had not been under closer supervision while on bail after early release from a sentence of nearly five years.

Nordine Amrani’s weapons were confiscated because of his other criminal offences, yet he managed to obtain a FAL Belgian assault rifle, grenades and other weapons soon after his release in October 2010.

Belgian’s notoriously liberal criminal justice system is already facing questions as to why, in October 2010, the killer had been released from prison three years early after being convicted of firearms and drug offences.

In 2008, Nordine Amrani had been found guilty of keeping 10 complete firearms, and an astonishing 9,500 gun parts in his flat, along with 2,800 cannabis plants nearby.

On Tuesday morning, Nardine Amrani is thought to have tried to rape the woman cleaner in his flat, where police had found an arsenal of weapons including a rocket launcher, AK47 and Kalashnikov.

Police said he killed her “with a bullet to her head” and then dumped her body in a lock-up shed where he was growing cannabis plants.

Nordine Amrani then left money for Perrin Balon, with a note that said: “Good luck! I love you.”

A police source said: “The cleaner had been working in a neighbour’s home. It appears that Amrani had invited her into his own flat to discuss the possibility of cleaning his flat.

“There were signs of a struggle, and it may be that Amrani had tried to rape her.

“Whatever happened, she was undoubtedly his first murder victim on Tuesday morning.”

Cedric Visart Bocarme, the Belgian Attorney General, confirmed that the woman “would have been murdered by the killer just before he went to Place Saint-Lambert”.

The attack brought horror to Liege, the Belgium’s fifth largest city, with crowds of shoppers, many of them children, screaming and running in panic as grenades exploded and shots rang out.

Today, a small crowd gathered at the Place Saint-Lambert for a minute’s silence at 12noon, 24 hours after the shooting.

Abdelhadi Amrani, another lawyer who worked for the killer but is not related, said he had grown up in foster homes after being orphaned as a child.

“I remember a man deeply marked by the loss of his parents,” she said.

“He lost his father and mother very early. He was marked by fate.

“I would add he was a very smart boy, gifted.

“Nordine often spoke of his desire to start a family. He was to be married to a nurse in Liege.”

Commenting on Nordine Amrani’s background, Abdelhadi Amrani said: “He did not feel at all Moroccan. He did not speak a word of Arabic, and was not Muslim. What he said is that he felt like a Belgian.

“He was crazy about weapons, but as a collector.

“He felt he had not had much luck in life and felt unfairly treated by the courts.

“This was the fed-up cry of a tormented soul – he was estranged from justice, and against society.”

Nordine Amrani had been due to attend a police interview on Tuesday morning but never showed up.

Instead he left his apartment armed with a Belgian-made FN- FAL automatic rifle, a handgun and up to a dozen grenades carried in a backpack.

Nordine Amrani drove the five-minute journey from his 1930s apartment building the Residence Belvedere and parked his white van in Place St Lambert.

He walked on to a raised walkway above a bus stop where lunchtime shoppers were thronging for the opening of a Christmas market.

From his 15ft high vantage point he lobbed three hand grenades towards a busy bus shelter before opening fire on the crowd. A 15-year-old boy died instantly while the baby of 17 months and a 17-year-old boy succumbed to their injuries in hospital.

Five people are still fighting for their lives, including a 75-year old woman who was initially declared dead on arrival at hospital.

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The death toll from yesterday’s grenade attack at a Christmas market in Liege, Belgium, rose to six, including the killer himself.

According to Belgian police, the body of a woman was found at an address used by the gunman Nordine Amrani.

Nordine Amrani, 32, was armed with grenades and an assault rifle when he attacked holiday shoppers at Place Saint-Lambert in Liege.

Attacker’s victims included two teenage boys aged 15 and 17, a 75-year-old woman and an 18-month-old baby, who died in hospital last night. A total of 122 were also wounded.

Prosecutor Cedric Visart de Bocarme told Belgian La Premiere radio station that the woman – a 45-year-old cleaner – had been found in a warehouse used by Nordine Amrani.

Cedric Visart de Bocarme said: “A search last night revealed in a warehouse used by the attacker, notably to grow cannabis, the body of a woman killed by the attacker.”

The death toll from yesterday's grenade attack at a Christmas market in Liege, Belgium, rose to six, including the killer himself

The death toll from yesterday's grenade attack at a Christmas market in Liege, Belgium, rose to six, including the killer himself

Nordine Amrani, who was previously jailed for possession of arms and drugs offences, hurled grenades and sprayed bullets into crowds of Christmas shoppers and children in Place Saint-Lambert.

The attack paralyzed the centre of Belgium’s fifth largest city, with workers trapped in offices as police sealed off the area. It is still unclear what drove Nordine Amrani to carry out the attack.

The shoppers, many of them children, ran screaming for safety in the panic as the gunman opened fire.

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.

Reports said Nordine Amrani used an FN FAL automatic rifle, a Belgian-made rifle capable of firing 700 rounds a minute, a pistol and threw three grenades in the attack.

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.

Nordine Amrani was on his way for police questioning when he attacked a crowd near a bus stop at Place Saint Lambert, a central shopping square which is the site of the city’s Christmas market and its main courthouse. It was not clear whether he committed suicide or died accidentally.

Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo expressed horror at the attack and travelled to the city. The nation’s King and Queen also arrived on the city this evening to visit survivors.

Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said emergency medical teams were called in from as far away as the Netherlands.

The broadcaster Radio Television Belge Francophone said during the attack that all buses had been asked to leave the city centre and all shops in the area were closed, some with many customers stranded inside.

Police helicopters were flying over the city and a medical post has been set up in the courtyard of the palace of the Prince Bishops (the court house) located on the site.

Police were on the scene quickly and sealed off the square. TV images showed blood splattered across the cobblestones.

Place Saint-Lambert is a busy crossroads. Every day 1,800 buses serve the square, which leads to downtown shopping streets.

The Place Saint-Lambert and the nearby Place du Marche host Liege’s annual Christmas market which consists of 200 retail cabins and attracts some 1.5 million visitors a year.

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Four people have been killed and at least 75 were injured during a grenade attack in a Christmas shopping area in Liege, Belgium.

The shoppers, many of them children, ran screaming for safety in the panic as the attacker Nordine Amrani opened fire.

The dead included a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a 75-year-old woman.

Nordine Amrani, 32, who was a convicted sex attacker and drug dealer, also died.

A two-year-old girl is in critical condition in hospital.

Men, women and children fled down the streets of Liege centre – some still carrying shopping bags – as ambulances and police descended on the area.

 

Four people have been killed and at least 75 were injured during a grenade attack in a Christmas shopping area in Liege, Belgium

Four people have been killed and at least 75 were injured during a grenade attack in a Christmas shopping area in Liege, Belgium

 

Detectives said Nordine Amrani used a rifle, a pistol and grenades in the attack.

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.

Nordine Amrani was on his way for police questioning when he attacked a crowd near a bus stop at Place Saint Lambert, a central shopping square which is the site of the city’s Christmas market and its main courthouse. It was not clear whether he committed suicide or died accidentally.

Gaspard Grosjean, a journalist for local Liege newspaper La Meuse, ran over to the square just after the attack, shortly after 12:30 p.m.

“We saw people with bullet wounds in their shoulders, their hands,” the journalist said, adding that he had seen one dead body.

“I see people completely scared, people are crying, everyone is on their phones.”

Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens confirmed the attack in the city and said emergency medical teams were called in from as far away as the Netherlands.

The broadcaster Radio Television Belge Francophone said that all buses had been asked to leave the city centre and all shops in the area were closed, some with many customers stranded inside.

It said police helicopters were flying over the city and a medical post has been set up in the courtyard of the palace of the Prince Bishops (the court house) located on the site.

Police were on the scene quickly and sealed off the square. TV images showed blood splattered across the cobblestones.

Valerie Schaaps, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Brussels, confirmed there had been explosions and gunfire, causing injuries.

Place Saint-Lambert is a busy crossroads. Every day 1,800 buses serve the square, which leads to downtown shopping streets. 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.

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