Last Updated: Friday, January 23, 2009 | 10:08 AM ET CBC News
A man with a black-and white-painted face entered a daycare outside Brussels Friday and stabbed to death two children and an adult, police say.
Police said the suspect, identified only as a man in his 20s, rode a bicycle to the Fabeltjesland daycare in the small town of Dendermonde around 10 a.m. local time.
Two nurses from the Fabeltjesland daycare walk outside a crisis centre set up in Dendermonde, near Brussels, after the attacks on Friday. (John Thys/AFP/Getty)
Upon entering, he told a staff member he had a question before walking to a room in the daycare where babies slept, said police.
Without saying a word, the suspect began stabbing the babies as staff members tried to stop him, said police.
He then moved to a second room to stab a number of infants, police said.
Two children aged three or younger were killed along with a female staff member. Ten other children and two adult staff members are in a local hospital.
Peter Claymens, the director of the Dendermonde Ambulance Centre, said the scene at the daycare was horrific.
"It was a disaster. All the children were lying down on the ground, bleeding, in the neck, in the stomach, everywhere," he said.
Dr. Ignace Demeyer, director of the local hospital, said the children arrived at his hospital with very serious stab wounds. All required surgery, and all were now in stable condition.
Anguished parents gathered outside the daycare as police showed them digital pictures of the injured so they could identify the children.
The suspect reportedly left the daycare and bicycled several kilometres before he was caught and arrested by police in a grocery store.
Witnesses said police arrested a tall, thin, red-haired man wearing a bullet-proof jacket. His eyes were painted with black makeup and the rest of his face was white, they said.
Police said the suspect behaved as if he was in a stupor when he was arrested. He is being questioned by police and could appear before a judge later in the day.
Police refused to confirm local reports that the man had a psychiatric disorder or a criminal past.
"An act of great brutality has happened here against our weakest citizens," said Dendermonde Mayor Buyse Piet. The small town is about 30 km northwest of Brussels.
Police say they have no motive for the attack.
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RIP......:(
