Three people have been injured by a machete-wielding woman who went on the rampage in Brussels before being shot by police, it has emerged.

The attacker lunged at passengers, stabbing one in the back and one in the stomach as they were getting off a bus in the Uccle area of the Belgian capital this afternoon.

She is said to have fled to a nearby gallery before armed police descended on the scene.

They warned her several times before shooting her in the arm and arresting her when she failed to back down.

Three people have been injured by a machete-wielding woman who went on the rampage in Brussels before being shot by police, it has emerged

The attacker lunged at passengers as they were getting off a bus in the Uccle area of the Belgian capital this afternoon. Pictures from a nearby building show police at the scene of the attack

Sources close to the investigation say police do not believe the incident was terrorism or politically motivated and the assailant is said to have had mental health problems

Local media have reported that two people have been taken to hospital, one with serious and one with minor injuries.

Sources close to the investigation say police do not believe the incident was terrorism or politically motivated and the assailant is said to have had mental health problems.

Pictures from the scene show how police have sealed off the street as an as an investigation gets underway.

Police warned the woman several times before shooting her in the arm when she failed to back down. Police later sealed off the area to investigate (pictured)

Mayor Armand de Decker reportedly told local media: 'When police arrived the person threatened an old lady with a knife wickedly. The police ordered her to drop the knife, she did not.

'They shot her in the arm, and that was it done.'

Brussels has been on high alert since local ISIS militants carried out the attacks in Paris last November and suicide bombings in Brussels itself in March.