3 die in Belgian day-care rampage

DENDERMONDE, Belgium - A young man with a gruesomely painted black-and-white face went on a rampage at a Belgian day-care center yesterday, stabbing two babies and a female worker to death and seriously wounding 12 people.

Sobbing parents rushed to the scene and to nearby hospitals. Shocked rescue workers spoke of finding crying, bleeding toddlers scattered inside the center. Medical workers at six hospitals sprang into action, performing emergency operations to save the 10 children and two adults badly wounded in the attack.

"This was a particularly violent attack," Ignace Demeyer, head of emergency services at Our Lady Hospital in nearby Aalst, told reporters. "All the kids had multiple stab wounds on their legs, arms, and all over their bodies."

The shocking assault caused panic and outrage in the town 20 miles northwest of Brussels, where the day-care center sits on a residential street.

"An act of great brutality has happened here against our weakest citizens," Mayor Buyse Piet said. "The whole city is united in support for the parents who are in deep grief."

Prosecutor Christian Du Four said the 20-year-old attacker rode his bike up to the Fabeltjesland day-care center about 10 a.m., found it unlocked, and went in.

"After he entered, he started slashing at everyone he ran into . . . the day-care workers, the children," Du Four told a news conference.

He said the man wielded a nearly 8-inch knife and had painted his face white with black patches around the eyes.

One worker tried but failed to disarm the intruder and another was stabbed to death, Du Four said. In the mayhem that ensued, the attacker simply walked out and got back on his bicycle before being arrested in a supermarket shortly afterward.

Demeyer said that all the wounded needed surgery but by last night, all were in stable condition.

Nine of the 21 children at the center during the attack were unharmed, Demeyer said.

Du Four did not name the suspect but said he had no criminal record and was uncooperative under questioning.