The Guardian is live blogging.
The attack is linked to a jail-break. According to Dutch news-site AD, the attack might be linked to a recent honor murder trial. Yesterday four members of the Pakistani Sheikh family were sentenced for the murder of Saida Sheikh. Brother Mudusar was sentenced to 15 years, father Mahmood Tariq to 25, the mother got 20 years and sister Sariya got five years. During sentencing the court received a phone call from a Pakistani organization threatening an attack on the courts in Brussels and Charleroi.
Other sources say the attackers have a drug-crime history.
Belgium attack: grenades thrown at bus-stop in Liège - live updates
• Two dead and several injured after blasts in Belgian city
• Attackers 'threw grenades at bus-stop'
• Whereabouts of attacker(s) uncertain
• Attackers 'threw grenades at bus-stop'
• Whereabouts of attacker(s) uncertain
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An injured person is carried after a grenade attack in Liege, Belgium Photograph: Sky News
Le Soir have slightly modified the latest toll: two dead, seven critically injured and 45 slightly injured are now the official figures.
The Belgian public broadcaster VRT is reporting that two or three assailants may still be at large, according to AP.
Police are telling residents to remain in their homes or seek shelter in shops or public buildings.Another broadcaster, Radio Television Belge Francophone, reported that all buses had been asked to leave the city center and all shops in the area were closed, some with many customers stranded inside.The report says police helicopters are flying over the city and a medical post has been set up in the courtyard of the palace of the Prince Bishops (court house) located on the site.
Speculation is mounting that the attack was linked to an attempted jail-break from the Palais de Justice, reports Ian Taynor.
The Palace of Justice complex on the St Lambert Square, the scene of the attack, is a large court and prison compound. Initial speculation that the assailants were involved in a jailbreak are hardening though it is unclear how they could be so heavily armed.The mayor of Liege, Willy Demeyer, confirmed that three males tried to escape from the palace of justice, according to the main Flemish paper, De Standaard.
Witnesses to the attack have been recounting the tragedy on Belgian radio, Ian Traynor says. Here are their testimonies.
Hervé Taverne said:
We were just coming out the [palais de] justice building [on the same square] and we saw someone throwing a hand grenade. It all happened so quickly that we ran for our lives. I grabbed a youngster inside, back into the building.Then after that various wounded were brought in. We heard gunshots outside. Meanwhile we've heard that there were several perpetrators, but we only saw one. We were also told that this was a [prison] escape action.
Dimitri Degryse drove past in his delivery van at the time of the attack.
I heard an explosion and I thought there was something wrong with my car. Then a second grenade went off; I saw smoke and heard several shots. People were lying bleeding on the ground. I stopped to help them. We tried to get the wounded off the street as quickly as possible.
Two people have died and 47 have been injured- seven of them critically- in the attack, Le Soir is quoting the prosecutor of Liège as saying. Read the rest with video's on: the Guardian blog
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