Thousands march for Belgium terror shooting victims

Nearly 3,000 people marched in the Belgian city of Liege on Sunday to honour the three victims of a shooting there last week that prosecutors are treating as a terrorist attack.

The marchers, most dressed in white, made a solemn procession through the city's sunny streets before laying white roses at the scene of the attack by Benjamin Herman, who shot dead two policewomen and a student on Tuesday.

Hundreds of white balloons were released into the sky at the culmination of the march, which comes ahead of official funerals on Tuesday for the two slain officers, who have both been posthumously awarded Belgium's highest civilian decoration.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

"I think it's important to be here, just to support the family, not to change things. Just to show to the family that we are here and support them," Marie Pousset, who was among nearly 3,000 marchers according to local police, told AFP.

Government officials and a representative of Belgium's king are set to attend the funerals for police officers Lucile Garcia, 54, and Soraya Belkacemi, 44, on Tuesday morning.

Student Cyril Vangriecken, 22, shot dead by Herman as he sat in the passenger seat of a parked car, will be buried on Monday.

A gunman on Tuesday fired shots in eastern Belgium's city of Liege killing two police officers and one civilian as a terrorist incident before being shot, the local public prosecutor told a news conference.

As per UK based reports, the police identified the gunman as Benjamin Herman, 36, from Rochefort, a city close to Liege. He had been involved in criminal activities such as robbery, assault, and drug-dealing and was well-known to the police. 

The 36-year-old petty criminal had been let out on day-release from a local prison on Monday. Police said investigators were looking into whether he converted to Islam and had been radicalised in jail, Reuters reported.

The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed one of its "soldiers" killed two policewomen and a student in the Belgian city of Liege this week, the jihadists' Amaq propaganda agency said.

"The author of the attack on the city of Liege in Belgium is a soldier of the Islamic State," IS said in a statement published on Amaq's Telegram account a day after the attack.

The terror group said "he led the attack in response to calls to target the countries of the US-led international coalition," which is fighting the jihadist group mainly in Syria.