TWO TODDLERS and a female care assistant have been murdered in a savage knife attack at a creche in a small town in western Belgium.
A man who painted his face white and blackened his eyes with makeup tricked his way into the nursery in Dendermonde yesterday and repeatedly stabbed workers and babies, some of whom were lying sleeping.
Ten other children under the age of three and two adults at the creche were seriously wounded in the attack, which left Belgium in a state of shock.
“It was horrible. You can’t imagine it. The two who were killed were just babies. One was already dead when I got there and the other was in a very bad way,” said Theo Janssens, an official with Dendermonde’s social services, who arrived within minutes of the attack.
“There was blood everywhere. He stabbed people with babies in their arms.”
Staff working at the creche said the attacker came to the door claiming he had “a question to ask” before rushing inside and stabbing as many toddlers as he could. Some 18 children, ranging in age from a few months to three years, attend the nursery.
The assailant escaped on a bicycle and was caught by police about one hour after the attack on the creche. Dendermonde’s chief of police, Paul Puttemans, said the man in custody was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying a number of weapons. “He put up a little bit of resistance,” said the chief, who added that the attacker looked 25 years old.
Alfonso de Backer, a former school teacher who lived close the creche, said he knew the identity of the assailant, who was a psychiatric patient. But police would not confirm the assailant’s name before he is charged formally in court.
Staff working at the creche told journalists they did not know the identity of the attacker, according to the Belgian media.
“My friend saw him escape from the creche. He had blacked out his eyes,” said Kris Kieckens, the owner of a bar on the street where the creche is located. “They brought the parents of the children into my bar following the attack. They were hysterical and crying. At that stage, they didn’t know if their children were okay or not,” he said.
The stricken parents were taken later by police to a social services centre, where they were shown digital photographs of their children who were being cared for at local hospitals in an effort to identify them.
“The parents are all receiving counselling for post-traumatic stress,” said Ignace Demeyer, head of emergency services at the Our Lady Hospital in nearby Aalst.
“I think the children will not remember this incident because they are so young. But many will be physically scarred. We have 10 children, what I would call toddlers, in hospital being treated for wounds. They will all survive, as well as two adults working at the centre.”
When news of the attack broke at about 10am yesterday in Dendermonde – a commuter town near Brussels with a population of about 50,000 people – schools and other creches barred their gates to guard against a further attack. Many parents with children attending two schools near the creche also rushed to the scene to make sure they were safe.
“There was panic initially. My niece rushed to the school and got her children and my children out,” said Ann Lies Eckhout, who has an eight- and a 10-year-old at the Holy Head school, which is around the corner from the Fabeltjesland creche, which translates into English as “the land of fables”.
“This was a popular creche with a waiting list. It could have happened anywhere . . . But people are frightened. This has never happened before.”
The creche, which was located in a small street of terraced houses in the St Gillis district of Dendermonde, remained cordoned off by police last night. Dendermonde mayor Buyse Piet said the murders were an act of great brutality against the town’s weakest citizens.
“The whole city is united in support for the parents who are in deep grief,” he said.
As dusk fell last night in Dendermonde, one local mother, Nathalie Francois, accompanied by her four-year-old daughter Tiani, braved the rain and cold to lay flowers at the scene.
“No one can believe that something like this can happen, especially in a small place like here,” she told journalists.