2018 Liège attack

Recent stabbing attacks on police officers in Belgium have included the 2016 stabbing of Brussels police officers, the 2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers and the stabbing of two officers on 7 September 2016 in Molenbeek.[9][4][10]

Belgium, which had been on high alert since a Brussels-based Islamic State (IS) cell was involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks and the March 2016 Brussels bombings that killed 32 people,[2] lowered its alert level in January 2018 citing the defeat of ISIS and a reduction in the number of people coming to Belgium from Syria.[10]

The Belgian parliament issued a report last year warning that convicts in the country had been behind several recent attacks in Europe and further expressed concerns that hundreds of prisoners deemed radical by authorities are due to be released in the coming years.[11]

At about 10:30, outside the Aux Augustins café in Liege's city centre,[12] the attacker shouted "Allahu Akbar", according to Federal Magistrate Wenke Rogen[13] and according to a video reported by La Repubblica.[14][4] He was armed with a knife that he used to stab[12] two female officers, Lucile Garcia and Soraya Belkacemi,[15] from behind as they were checking parking meters.[2] He took one of the officers' handguns (he was later pictured with two handguns) and fatally shot the officers.[12] A 22-year-old male, Cyril Vangriecken, was also killed in an attempted car-jacking before the perpetrator went into the Athénée de Waha high school and tried to take a female cleaner hostage who was left unharmed after she told the attacker that she was a Muslim who observed Ramadan, and persuaded him to not harm the pupils.[16][17][15] All the students had been evacuated to the nearby Botanical Garden.[12]

The perpetrator then left the school and shot two police officers in the leg, leaving one officer in a serious condition.[12] Two other officers received injuries to their arms before the attacker was shot dead when the police returned fire.[18][19]

Catherine Collignon, a spokesman for the Liège prosecutors, confirmed the deaths of four people, including the assailant.[12] She later claimed the attack matched the style of similar IS-inspired attacks and told a press conference the attack "qualified as terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder."[17]

A terrorism investigation was launched after the attack.[2][10] The method of the attack, repeatedly stabbing the policewomen before using their own firearms to kill them, while shouting "Allahu Akbar", was said by investigators to be specifically encouraged by the Islamic State.[7]

Benjamin Herman, a 31-year-old Belgian, was reported as the perpetrator[16] who had been released from prison on 28 May[18] on a one-day parole after being held for drug offences. Investigators sought to determine if he had been radicalised in prison[12] as he had reportedly been in contact with radicalised Islamists while confined[2] although he wasn't listed as an extremist threat.[12] During a search of his cell after the attack, investigators found a Quran and a prayer rug.[20]

He was from Rochefort, about an hour from Liège. He was known to police for crimes such as robbery, assault and drug dealing. His family leave was given in order to prepare for his re-integration into society despite a prison service assessment that he was very violent.[2]

The night before the attack, Herman also killed Michael Wilmet in Marche-en-Famenne,[21] repeatedly hitting him with a hammer. Wilmet was a former prisoner, convicted on drug charges, whom Herman had met in jail.[18][22]

On 30 May, Amaq News Agency, linked to the Islamic State, claimed that a "soldier of the Caliphate" had responded to the proscribed group's call to attack citizens of countries in the international coalition fighting it.[23][24]

• 2011 Liège attack
• 2018 Brussels stabbing attack

• Video of suspects shooting - Xinhua via Twitter