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A crazed man hacked at a policewoman's face with a machete and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' before turning on another officer just seconds before a third cop shot him dead in a suspected terror attack.

The machete-wielding terror suspect launched his terrifying attack in Charleroi this afternoon after walking up to the Belgian city's main police station just before 4pm.

He wandered up the policewomen at a checkpoint at the entrance of to station and immediately pulled out the huge blade.

Screaming "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), the twisted attacker then flung the machete into the face of one of the female officers with huge force.

(Image: Getty) (Image: Getty) (Image: Getty)

A second officer was close by and the savage immediately lunged towards her before a third officer who was at the checkpoint with her colleagues pulled out her gun and blasted him in the chest and leg and later died.

Terrified witnesses reported hearing a series of shots as the attack, which Belgian authorities later described as appearing to be an act of terror.

The two injured officers, later named by local media as Corinne and Hakima were raced to hospital.

(Image: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR) (Image: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR)

Medics later revealed Corinne was only slightly injured, but her colleague was left with horror wounds to her face and would need plastic surgery.

Prime Minister Charles Michel's spokesman said he was "closely monitoring" the situation and will meet tomorrow with security services.

He added that early indications for the motive are "very much towards a terrorist attack".

(Image: Reuters) (Image: REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR)

A police spokesman told a press conference: "It's a sad thing. Our hearts go out to the two cops involved.

"Our thoughts also go out to the officer who had to pull her gun. For her this is not easy."

Chillingly it is feared the attacker hoped to get 'multiple' casualties but was prevented from getting to the main part of the station by a checkpoint.

Police stations and other public worker buildings have put in place checkpoints at their entrances in the wake of a number of horrifying terror attacks to hit the nation in recent months.

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Paul Magnette, mayor of the city in southern Belgium, said the checkpoint succeeded in preventing the attacker from reaching the building and causing more havoc.

The mayor said that in the wake of the attack, Belgian authorities are discussing whether security for police facilities and officers should be beefed up further.

(Image: Getty)

A witness told RTL that he heard gunshots at the scene and there was an ambulance at the scene.

Another, who asked not to be named, told of the moment he heard the hero police officer open fire on the crazed machete attacker.

He said: "Suddenly we heard five or six shots. About thirty seconds later three more shots."

The identity of the savage attacker has not yet been revealed.

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Belgian politician Jan Jambon tweeted: "Despicable act in Charleroi. All my support to the two wounded policemen, their colleagues and family members."

Just last month the Belgian PM said that Belgium should be vigilant for “new methods of terrorism” - but added that the country’s terror threat level would not be raised as there was no “concrete and precise threat” of a terror attack on Belgian soil.

Last weekend, a 33-year-old man identified only as Nourredine H. was arrested on charges of participating in a terrorist group and planning "terrorist murders" following searches in the city of Liege and the Mons region of Belgium.

European cities remain on high alert following a spate of terror attacks including the Nice atrocity which left 84 people dead on Bastille Day.

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Khalid el-Bakraoui, one of the suicide bombers who detonated an explosive belt at a Belgian Metro station - killing 14 - is thought to have rented a flat at Charleroi which was used as a rendeszvous by the Belgian cell taking part in the Paris attacks.

Traces were found in the Rue du Fort flat in Charleroi of both Abdeslam brothers and Stade de France bomber Bilal Hadfi, as well as suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud and Chakib Akrouh, who both died during a raid by Paris police five days after the attacks.

In June a police officer and his wife were stabbed to death in Magnanville, France.

The killer, who pledged allegiance to ISIS, brutally slaughtered police chief Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his wife at their home last night.

(Image: Getty)

(Image: Getty)

In July a 17-year-old Afghan refugee seriously injured five people with a knife and hatchet on a train near Würzburg in Germany. The attacker was shot dead when he attacked police officers

On July 24 a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany, 15 people were injured 15, four seriously.

(Image: Reuters) (Image: Getty) (Image: Handout via Reuters)

He recorded videos showing him pledging allegiance to ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Two days later a priest's was murdered and four nuns were taken hostage in a church in Rouen, France.

The two terrorists were shot dead.

Father Jacques Hamel, 85, was made to get to his knees before he was brutally butchered at the Church of the Gambetta in Normandy today, says a nun who escaped the attack.

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His two murderers - one of whom has been named as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche - captured the slaying on a mobile phone, according to Sister Danielle, who was one of several worshippers taken hostage during morning mass.

On March 22 three coordinated suicide bombings killed 32 people and injured 300. Two of them took place at Brussels Airport in Zaventem and one was at Maalbeek metro station in central Brussels.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.