City holds minute's silence as police say Nordine Amrani also murdered cleaner at his flat before the city centre attack
A solemn hush descended on Liège at lunchtime on Wednesday as the Belgian city mourned the victims of the carnage wrought by a lone gunman that left five people dead and scores injured.
The minute's silence came as police confirmed that the Nordine Amrani, the 33-year-old convicted gun fanatic who unleashed a volley of gunfire and grenades on a city centre square on Tuesday, had murdered a cleaner before the killing spree after which he committed suicide.
Police said the corpse was found at a garage-storehouse Amrani used to grow marijuana plants and assemble firearms. The 45-year-old woman was shot dead with a bullet in the head on Tuesday morning, police said.
A convicted criminal, Amrani was released early from jail in October last year after serving half of a five-year sentence for illegal arms possession and drug dealing.
Police found 9,500 gun parts, assembled firearms and 2,800 marijuana plants at the storehouse before Amrani was tried and convicted in 2008.
He had been due to report to police at lunchtime on Tuesday, but failed to show up, instead launching the attack that has stunned Belgium.
The gunman threw three hand grenades into the busy city centre square, one at a bus shelter, killing two teenage students instantly. A 17-month-old baby held by his mother was hit by a bullet in the head and died last night.
Of more than 120 people injured, five remain critical, including a 75-year-old woman who was initially counted among the dead and stands little chance of recovering from her injuries.
Amrani suffered injuries from grenade shrapnel and then shot himself, according to police.
The destroyed bus shelters were covered with flowers on Wednesday.
"Why?" asked the main French-language newspaper in Belgium, Le Soir. "We had been hoping to end the year with some peace and quiet following an interminable crisis and a year of social and economic calamity."
A new government come to power only last week in Belgium, forever rent between its French- and Dutch-speaking halves, after 589 days of failure by the political elites to agree on how to run the fractured country.
"The Liège criminal act marks in blood the end of a year that brought only pain," said Le Soir.
Saint Lambert's Square, where the attack took place, is the city centre's busiest traffic hub with the bus station and the Palais de Justice housing the main court and prison compound. It is also the venue for a busy Christmas market.
While police, prosecutors, and politicians emphasised 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 declared to explain the rampage.
Amrani arrived on the square with hand grenades, a rifle, and a revolver. He mounted a platform on the square and threw three grenades, opened fire with the rifle and then shot himself with the handgun, according to police.
Belgian media reported on Wednesday that on the eve of the killing spree, Amrani transferred a sum of money to his wife's bank account with a note saying: "I love you my love. Good luck."
Police hope to glean a better idea of the gunman's motivation by questioning his wife.
Patrick Wintour 14 Dec, 2011 --
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/14/liege-attack-police-body-victims~
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