Four people died and 75 were injured when a rogue gunman lobbed grenades and shot into crowds of shoppers at a Christmas market in Liege, Belgium.

The shoppers, many of them children, ran screaming for safety in the panic as the gunman opened fire. The dead included a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a 75-year-old woman. The attacker, 32-year-old Nordine Amrani, who was a convicted sex attacker and drug dealer, also died.  Among the injured is a two-year-old girl, who is 'clinging to life' in hospital. 

Men, women and children fled down the streets of the city centre - some still carrying shopping bags - as ambulances and police descended on the area. Detectives said Amrani used a rifle, a pistol and grenades in the attack. In the initial chaos, reports said up to three men had taken part in the attack, but the Interior Ministry later confirmed only one was involved, adding the incident was not terrorism-related. Amrani was on his way for police questioning when he attacked a crowd near a bus stop at Place Saint Lambert, a central shopping square which is the site of the city's Christmas market and its main courthouse. It was not clear whether he committed suicide or died accidentally. Gaspard Grosjean, a journalist for local Liege newspaper La Meuse, ran over to the square just after the attack, shortly after 12.30pm.   

'We saw people with bullet wounds in their shoulders, their hands,' he said, adding that he had seen one dead body. 'I see people completely scared, people are crying, everyone is on their phones.' Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo expressed horror at the attack and travelled to the city. The  nation's King and Queen also arrived on the city this evening to visit survivors. Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said emergency medical teams were called in from as far away as the Netherlands. The broadcaster Radio Television Belge Francophone said during the attack that all buses had been asked to leave the city centre and all shops in the area were closed, some with many customers stranded inside. It said police helicopters were flying over the city and a medical post has been set up in the courtyard of the palace of the Prince Bishops (the court house) located on the site.

Police were on the scene quickly and sealed off the square. TV images showed blood splattered across the cobblestones. Place Saint-Lambert is a busy crossroads. Every day 1,800 buses serve the square, which leads to downtown shopping streets. The Place Saint-Lambert and the nearby Place du Marche host Liege's annual Christmas market which consists of 200 retail cabins and attracts some 1.5 million visitors a year.

Source:www.dailymail.co.uk