Belgija: Planirao pokolj u još jednom vrtiću

Napadač je u trenutku uhićenja imao kod sebe još jedan nož, osim onoga kojim je počinio zločin, te cedulju s imenom drugog vrtića.

Flowers and teddy bears for the victims of an attack that has sent shock waves throughout this small town and the rest of Belgium.

SOUNDBITE: Nicole Verhelstm, Resident saying (Dutch)

"I feel really bad about it. Usually you see this kind of thing on TV and you think it's bad but you don't realise.. But when it happens on your own street, so close to us, it's really dreadful."

It had been a usual Friday morning at this nursery in Dendermonde when staff and children were confronted with a man wearing a bullet-proof vest and wielding a large knife.

Prosecutors say he started stabbing people indiscriminately - one worker tried to disarm the intruder but failed, another was stabbed to death.

The man also killed two babies - named locally as Corneel, who was nine months old and Leon, who was six months old.

Theo Janssens is head of Social Services.

SOUNDBITE: Theo Jannsens, Head of Social Services, saying (Dutch):

"I had to step over all the kids who were lying in the corridor, they were crying, several were bleeding, it was one of those things I will never forget."

After leaving the nursery on his bike, the knifeman was pursued by a police helicopter and arrested at a nearby supermarket still in possession of the knife used in the attack.

The Mayor of Dendermonde says the community is in shock.

SOUNDBITE: Piet Buyse, Mayor of Dendermonde saying (English):

"Now we are in mourning and we are trying to organise some things to come together with our people to say to the families - the families of the victims - that we are with them, our hearts are with them and we are bleeding with them.

Meanwhile, police are continuing to question the man who witnesses described as looking like the Joker from the Batman films.

Liz Kennedy, Reuters