Crazed knifeman kills two children and nursery teacher

A psychiatric patient stabbed to death a woman and two children under the age of three in a horrifying attack at a creche in Belgium today.

Eleven other children and two women workers were injured when the knifeman ran wild in the nursery in a small town 20 miles from Brussels.

The man — who was smeared with black and white war paint — burst into the school at about 10am local time.

The woman who died is believed to have been a nursery teacher who tried to defend the children.

The assailant, aged 28, arrived at the creche saying he wanted to ask a question, but then leapt into one of the rooms to launch his attack before stabbing more victims in another room.

The wounded were being treated at local hospitals. Three of the children were in a critical condition. The attack in the Sint-Gillis suburb of the small town of Dendermonde has stunned the nation.

Officials said the suspect rang the doorbell at the daycare centre and when staff opened the door he ran upstairs and began attacking the children.

About 18 children were there at the time, they said. After the carnage at the De Rakkertjes nursery the knifeman escaped on a bicycle.

He was caught at a psychiatric clinic, where he was receiving treatment, a short time afterwards.

Early reports said the man had a grudge against children and went to the premises this morning with a long-bladed knife.

Staff at the nursery say he was not known to them. He was taken to a police station in Brussels usually reserved for terrorist suspects.

As police hunted him in the immediate aftermath of the attack the authorities put a disaster plan into action.

Ambulances took the wounded to local hospitals while officials sought adequate blood supplies for transfusions.

Police said the man must have presented a "frightening aspect" to the toddlers with his "black-and-white make-up and red hair". They also described him as extremely thin.

One Flemish TV station reported: "It was a total bloodbath with medics with tears streaming down their faces trying to attend to the screaming, wounded children." Another commentator said: "This is Belgium's Dunblane," a reference to the massacre of 16 schoolchildren by a mad gunman in the Scottish town in 1996.

Piet Buys, the mayor of Dendermonde, said: "The killing zone has been cordoned off and the victims are being attended to.

"Those who were not injured have been brought to a central crisis centre for care and counselling. They are in deep shock and need help. We are devastated by this.

"We do not know who the perpetrator is or his motives."

Interior minister Zaken Guido De Padt has travelled to the scene.

The loner who killed 16 children

Sixteen children and their teacher died in the Dunblane massacre in March 1996.

Loner Thomas Hamilton, pictured, burst into Dunblane Primary School in Scotland with four handguns, shooting the children and teacher dead in the gym before killing himself.

The children were aged between five and six and the massacre led to a ban on handguns. Among those who escaped was tennis player Andy Murray, who was eight and hid in an office.

Hamilton, a former Scout leader, was thought to have had a personality disorder but his motive was never really established.