Fatal stabbings in Belgian creche

[Bounty]

At least three people have been killed in a knife attack at a creche in north-western Belgium, officials say.

The Belgian interior ministry said two children and one adult died after a man attacked people at the creche in Dendermonde, north-west of Brussels.

The ministry said the assailant had now been arrested.

There have been conflicting reports of the number of victims at the creche. It is thought at least 10 people have been injured in the attack.

Peter Cleymans, of the Dendermonde Ambulance Centre, told Reuters by telephone that a number of people were hurt.

"Ten, 15, 20 are injured, I don't know," he said.

Flemish TV station VTM had earlier reported three children and two adults had died, but the interior ministry have confirmed only three deaths in total.

Local authorities have put a disaster plan in place, and children have been evacuated from the creche to a nearby reception centre.

It's all over the news here. And holy crap, what makes somebody go and butcher toddlers with a knife?

[Tiriol]

I wonder what kind of twisted psychopathy has afflicted this man to attack little children. If the school shootings aren't rational, this act definetely isn't one, as well (and is even less rational than school shootings).

Curiously I have never heard of the word creche before. I had to check it from dictionary.

[tim31]

I hate, hate stories like this coming up; I like to think that when my children are in the care of a business or institution for the day that they will be safe.

[Rye]

It's reminiscent of Dunblane, but at least he didn't have a gun. Sounds terrifying; is there any news on what his face was "painted up" like? As it is, I'm hoping he wasn't a goth or someone dressed as the Joker, the tabloid media doesn't need a new witch hunt.

[Bounty]

The body count just went up: one woman and three children are dead, 10 children and 3 adults are severely wounded, some of them critical.

Sounds terrifying; is there any news on what his face was "painted up" like?

Witnesses say he was a very thin man with a white-painted face and black paint around his eyes, carrying "multiple" knives. He walked up to the daycare centre, said he had "questions", then started stabbing babies. The rest of what happened is extremely unclear at this point; all that's know is that he killed one employee and injured several others who tried to stop him, and that at one point he just left. He was arrested by a patrol an hour later, apparently with some violence since he's under guard in the hospital now. He wasn't carrying any form of ID.

The attacker's identity is at this point unknown. There was a report saying he was a psychiatric patient, but that has since been withdrawn.

EDIT: the BBC article has been updated, but they're behind on their casualty figures. Their version:

Officials said he had rung the doorbell at the Fabeltjesland (English: Storyland) nursery at 1000 local time (0900 GMT) and told staff he needed some information.

When they opened the door, he ran in and began attacking three of the infants.

"He quickly pulled out a knife and started using it on the children," said local prosecutor Christian Du Four.

"He then went up to another floor and started doing the same thing again."

The prosecutor said the man's face had been smeared with a white colouring but his eyes had been blackened.

One of those who died is believed to be a nursery employee and Dendermonde's deputy mayor, Theo Janssens, said several adults had been injured as they tried to put themselves between the attacker and the children.

"The guy just went crazy," Mr Janssens said. "There was blood everywhere, it was unbelievable, real carnage."

[CJvR]

Mad dogs get shot!
To bad this rabid creature walks on two legs.

[Bounty]

Attempts to interrogate the attacker have been stonewalled; he's so far given five different versions of his background. All that's been officially released is that he's about 25 and completely nuts.

[MKSheppard]

Attempts to interrogate the attacker have been stonewalled; he's so far given five different versions of his background. All that's been officially released is that he's about 25 and completely nuts.

It's the Joker!

[LadyTevar]

Wite paint and black eyes isn't the Joker... it's the Crow

[MKSheppard]

Wite paint and black eyes isn't the Joker... it's the Crow

Wrong.

[FSTargetDrone]

Horrifying. I don't know why I read these stories.

Curiously I have never heard of the word creche before. I had to check it from dictionary.

Yeah, I'm in the USA and I've never heard this word used in this context before. I know it as a "Nativity scene" and have never heard it used otherwise (and rarely used at all, in fact) so here I immediately thought there was some weird religious thing going on.

[Bounty]

It's the Joker!

The evening news just pointed out the similarities. Normally I'd chalk this up to sensationalism, but he's now also mocking his interrogators. Copycat perhaps?

[Broomstick]

Horrifying. I don't know why I read these stories.

Curiously I have never heard of the word creche before. I had to check it from dictionary.

Yeah, I'm in the USA and I've never heard this word used in this context before. I know it as a "Nativity scene" and have never heard it used otherwise (and rarely used at all, in fact) so here I immediately thought there was some weird religious thing going on.

I think I heard it more commonly when I was younger, but it's been supplanted by "nursery", "child care", and "kindergarten", all of which were more common and synonyms to one degree or another. Might be more common in areas with French language influence, but there aren't a lot of those in the US.

[Broomstick]

It's the Joker!

The evening news just pointed out the similarities. Normally I'd chalk this up to sensationalism, but he's now also mocking his interrogators. Copycat perhaps?

There's also that bit about nothing in his pockets but knives and lint.... just 'cause the guy is crazy doesn't mean he isn't inspired by something.

[Kanastrous]

In the US 'creche' is almost invariably used to describe a Christmas creche - miniature barn, baby Jesus, animals, kings, family, etcetera.

[Solauren]

You know, I once saw a post (I think it was on here), regarding people dressing up like superheroes and being good citizens ("crime fighters"), and they joked how no one ever dressed up like a super-villian to commit crimes.

Now, apparently, someone finally as. As one of the most ironic villians in super-mythology history to date.

A real like freaking Joker wanna-be. Great, just great.

Hopefully, fingerprinting and/or DNA will ID this clown.

[Captain Seafort]

It's reminiscent of Dunblane

I'm reminded more of Lisa Potts myself.

Hopefully, fingerprinting and/or DNA will ID this clown.

If that's meant to be a joke it's in bloody poor taste.

[Solauren]

Hopefully, fingerprinting and/or DNA will ID this clown.

If that's meant to be a joke it's in bloody poor taste.

Poor choice of words.

[Bounty]

Evening news reports that the attacker was wearing a bulletproof vest, and that he was on his way to a second daycare centre when he was arrested

He's still refusing to cooperate; all he does is laugh and lie.

[Rogue 9]

Well at least he doesn't have a bunch of loyal minions, bombs, and an actual master plan. Jesus, this is ten different kinds of fucked up.

[Lord Pounder]

My first thoughts when I read this on BBC today was that it was one of those retard juggalo morons. Wasn't the scum bag who decapitated a guy on the bus not that long ago a "ninja of the juggalo army"?

[Kanastrous]

I don't know about the juggalo angle; personally I find clown makeup inexplicably but deeply disturbing (clowns don't trigger my laugh-reflex; they trigger my fight-or-flight reflex). Since I know a lot of people who basically feel the same and hear that the sentiment is not too unusual, I wonder if the choice of clown makeup was made to play on the way that some of us find clowns disturbing.

[Rye]

My first thoughts when I read this on BBC today was that it was one of those retard juggalo morons. Wasn't the scum bag who decapitated a guy on the bus not that long ago a "ninja of the juggalo army"?

No (though could the victim have been?), and juggalos are nigh-nonexistent outside North America. If I were to hazard a guess on this horribly sketchy information, I would expect him to be a narcissist who wanted an impact on people on the level the Joker did. I'd not be surprised if there were copycats over the next couple of months too.

[The Spartan]

What the hell is a juggalo?

[Rye]

What the hell is a juggalo?

Insane Clown Posse fan. They're a humourous rock/rap group with lots of fans who are sort of dumb.