Belgium PM announces terror probe into machete attack

Man who attacked policewomen while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ identified as Algerian national with criminal record

By AFP 7 August 2016, 4:21 pm

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Police stand as they secure the area around a police building in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi following a machete attack on August 6, 2016. (AFP/Belga/Virginie Lefour)

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgium’s prime minister Sunday announced a terrorism probe into a machete attack that wounded two policewomen, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of jihadist attacks in Europe.

“We have been informed by federal prosecutors that an investigation has started for attempted terrorist murder… given certain elements (in the case),” Charles Michel told reporters.

The prime minister was referring to the attacker’s cry of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) during the assault in front of a police station.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said Sunday the attacker was an Algerian national known to police for criminal offenses but not terrorism.

The 33-year-old attacker, identified by the initials K.B., had been living in Belgium since 2012, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

This picture taken on August 6, 2016 shows a blanket on the ground in the area around a police building after a man wounded two policewomen with a machete in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi. AFP/ BELGA / VIRGINIE LEFOUR)

The attack Saturday outside the main police station in the city of Charleroi, around 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Brussels, left one of the policewomen with “deep wounds to the face” while the other was slightly injured, Belga news agency said.

Charleroi police said the attacker was shot and killed, while the two victims were out of danger.

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union’s institutions on March 22, killing 32 people.

Those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror strikes in Europe over the last year.