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“We saw people with bullet wounds in their shoulders, their hands,” he said, adding that he had seen one body.

“I see people completely scared, people are crying, everyone is on their phones.”

Amrani was freed from jail about a year ago after a conviction for possessing weapons and drug offences.

Justice officials said Amrani had been summoned to answer police questions that morning on an undisclosed matter, but never turned up.

One witness told RTBF radio: “He had a bag. He got a grenade out of his bag. He threw the grenade at the bus stop.

“Then he had a Kalashnikov (rifle). He shot in all directions. Then everyone ran to try to save themselves. Then he got a revolver out and put a bullet in his head.”

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TODDLER DIES

Police said the dead were two boys of 15 and 17, a 75-year-old woman, and a toddler of just 17 months whom hospital doctors fought for hours to save.

Liege’s mayor, Willy Demeyer, said the two boys had been taking school exams nearby just before the attack.

By evening, Place Saint Lambert, whose Christmas market of around 200 stalls attracts over 1.5 million visitors each year, was still sealed off, covered with shattered glass and pools of blood, and there was still no indication of Amrani’s motive.

At his most recent address, an apartment block near the scene of the attack, Johan Buron said he had been astonished to learn what his neighbor had done.

“He was calm, every time I met him in the corridor he was very friendly and said ‘Hi’,” he told Reuters. “If my memory serves me right, he was a welder.”