Gunman kills three including two police officers in Liege
A man killed two policewomen and a woman passer-by in the Belgian city of Liege, public broadcaster RTBF said, before being shot dead.
The city authorities confirmed the death toll.
The national crisis centre, on high alert since past attacks by Islamic State in Paris and Brussels, said it was looking into whether terrorism might have been a motive for Tuesday's attack in Belgium's third city.
RTBF named the alleged assailant as a 36-year-old Belgian who had been released on parole from a prison near Liege, close to the German and Dutch borders, on Monday.
He was serving time for drug offences and classified as "unstable", according to RTBF. It remained unclear how the incident, during which pupils at a nearby high school were moved to a place of safety, had unfolded.
"The children in the local schools are safe," Liege city authorities said on Twitter, adding that apart from the two police officers the passenger in a car had been killed.
RTBF said the man may have attacked the police officers with a box-cutter and then seized one of their weapons.
La Libre Belgique newspaper quoted a police source as saying the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar" -- God is greatest in Arabic -- and RTBF said investigators were looking into whether he might have been converted to Islam and radicalised in prison.
"(Terrorism) is one of the questions on the table, but for the moment all scenarios are open," a spokesman for the crisis centre told Reuters.
Federal prosecutors took over the investigation, a further indication that a terrorist motive was possible.
Prime Minister Charles Michel, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims, said it was too early to say what had caused the incident.
Published: by Radio NewsHub