Daycare stabbing in Belgium

2 children, 1 adult dead in daycare stabbing

HEALTH - A man went on a rampage at a Belgium day care centre today, stabbing two young children and a female worker to death and sending 10 other children to hospital, officials said.

Sobbing parents rushed to the scene and to the hospitals, as officials reported some of the wounded children were in serious condition.

Christian Du Four, a local prosecutor, said in the mayhem that ensued the attacker simply walked out and got on his bicycle before being arrested in a nearby supermarket shortly after the 10 a.m. attack.

"We have three people dead and 10 in various hospitals," Du Four told a news conference.

The attack caused widespread panic in the day care centre, which serves 18 children on a residential street in this town 30 kilometres northwest of Brussels.

"People are totally in shock," said Leene Du Bois, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Flanders. "Nobody would have imagined anyone could do so much harm. There is much grief."

She said the perpetrator had no connection to the day care centre.

Media reports said he had a history of mental illness.

Du Four and witnesses said the man rode his bike to the Fabeltjesland day care centre, entered and immediately began slashing a knife around. The dead included two children – ranging in age up to three – and a woman working in the day care centre.

Du Four did not immediately identify the suspect, who was injured as police detained him and taken to a nearby hospital. The VRT television network said the man was a local resident.

Du Four said police showed shaken parents digital photographs of the youngsters who had been taken to the hospital, asking them to identify their children.

The city opened up a nearby community centre to provide psychological counselling to victims and witnesses of the stabbings.

Veerle Heeren, the social welfare minister for the regional Flemish government, said she would be investigating security measures at the centre.

Such an violent attack is rare in Belgium. Although the country has been plagued by notorious child abuse cases, it has escaped the shooting or stabbing attacks at schools witnessed in other European countries.