3 dead, 10 wounded in Belgium day care stabbings

[January 23, 2009]  DENDERMONDE, Belgium (AP) -- An unidentified man entered a day care center in Belgium and went on a stabbing spree Friday, killing two young children and a female worker and sending 10 others to the hospital, officials said.

Prosecutor Christian Du Four said the man was arrested in a nearby supermarket not long after causing widespread panic during the 10 a.m. attack in this town 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Brussels.

Du Four and witnesses said the man entered the Fabeltjesland day care center and immediately began slashing a knife around. The dead included two children -- ranging in age up to 3 -- and a woman working in the day care center, which serves 18 children, he said.

"We have three people dead and 10 in various hospitals," Du Four told a news conference.

He did not immediately identify the suspect, who was injured as police detained him and taken to a nearby hospital. The VRT television network said the man was a local resident known to police.

Du Four said police showed digital photographs of the youngsters who had been taken to the hospital to shaken parents, asking them to identify their children.

The city used a nearby community center to provide psychological counseling to victims and witnesses of the stabbings.

Veerle Heeren, the social welfare minister for the regional Flemish government, said she would be investigating security measures at the center.

Witnesses told Belgian media that the perpetrator arrived at the center on his bike. After he was let in, he began to stab anyone in his vicinity.

[Associated Press; By VIRGINIA MAYO]

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