Bloodbath at Belgian creche
January 24, 2009
A PSYCHIATRIC patient smeared with black and white warpaint stabbed two children under three and an adult to death in a bloodbath yesterday at a creche in Belgium. The attack in the Sint-Gillis suburb of the small town of Dendermonde, 20 miles west of Brussels, has stunned the nation. At least 11 other children were hurt with varying degrees of wounds. Several needed emergency surgery and doctors spoke of at least one having life-threatening injuries.
After the carnage at the De Rakkertjes nursery in the Fifth of January Street, the attacker escaped on a bicycle but was caught shortly afterwards at a nearby Aldi supermarket on his way to a psychiatric clinic where he was receiving treatment. His motive was unclear. He was taken to a police station in Brussels usually reserved for terrorist suspects.
Early TV reports said the man had a grudge against children and went to the premises shortly after 9am with a long-bladed knife. Police officials said the man must have presented a "frightening aspect" to the toddlers with his "black and white make up and red hair". They also said he was extremely thin. "It was a total bloodbath with medics with tears streaming down their faces trying to attend to the screaming, wounded children," reported one Flemish TV station. "This is Belgium's Dunblane," said the commentator, referring to the massacre of schoolchildren by a gunman in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996 in which 16 children, a teacher and the perpetrator died.
Belgium's Interior Minister, Zaken Guido De Padt, promised a review of security in kindergartens across the country following the stabbings.
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He did all that and then escaped on his bicycle? Bloody hell.
