The cleaning lady taken hostage by the Liege gunman convinced the suspected terrorist to spare the lives of pupils at the school where he took refuge, after murdering two police officers and a passerby in the heart of the Belgian city.

The 47-year-old, named only as Darifa, told the killer, who was brandishing two pistols, that she was Muslim and that he should not be in the courtyard of the Lycee de Waha high school because there were children there.

Benjamin Herman, 31, said, “you are right” before turning on his heel, shouting “Allahu Akbar” and charging police outside, firing his weapons.

Herman, who was on a two-day release from prison despite being on a terror watch list for radicalised prisoners, was gunned down in a hail of 26 bullets by elite officers, four of whom were wounded in the firefight.

He is also suspected of bludgeoning a former cellmate to death with a hammer the night before the attack in Belgium’s third city.

Darifa told state broadcaster RTBF that she had closed two doors to the inside of the school before she was confronted by Herman who said: “I am going to ask you two questions.”

After asking if she was Muslim and observed Ramadan, Herman said he would not harm her.