A man with a history of run-ins with the law lobbed three hand grenades and opened fire at a crowded central bus stop here Tuesday, killing four people, wounding 122 and creating a panic before killing himself, officials said.
No motive was immediately established, though the Interior Ministry said it was not related to terrorism.
Called for questioning by Belgian police, a man with a history of weapons and drug offenses left home armed with several weapons. Authorities say he stopped at a central square, lobbed three grenades into the crowd, then opened fire.
Rescuers evacuate injured people at the Place Saint Lambert square where two men threw explosives in the city center of the Belgian city of Liege December 13, 2011.
Three victims died on the spot and at least one died later at a hospital, Belgian news reports said. The attacker was identified as Norodine Amrani, 33, of Liege, who had received a 58-month prison sentence for drug and gun offences in 2008. He had been summoned to appear before police Tuesday, suggesting that his attack was some sort of desperate final lashing out.
The attack took place just after noon at a crowded bus stop in Place St.-Lambert, a hub of the old city that hosts an annual Christmas market and is the site of a main courthouse. Liege is in eastern Belgium and is the country’s third largest city, after Brussels and Antwerp.
The GCP event was set for 6 hours beginning at noon (11:00 to 17:00 UTC). The result is Chisquare 21593 on 21600 df, for p = 0.511 and Z = -0.029.
It is important to keep in mind that we have only a tiny
statistical effect, so that it is always hard to distinguish
signal from noise. This means that every "success" might be
largely driven by chance, and every "null" might include a real
signal overwhelmed by noise. In the long run, a real effect can
be identified only by patiently accumulating replications of
similar analyses.
