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A grenade-and-gun attack on a public square in Liège, Belgium, on 13 December 2011 killed five people and injured more than 147, and the attacker also killed a woman earlier that day before dying by suicide.
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Suggest coverage for 2011 Liège attackThe case file
On 13 December 2011, a murder–suicide attack took place in Liège, in the Wallonia region of Belgium. At 12:33 local time, a 33-year-old man threw grenades and opened fire with an FN FAL rifle on civilians in the Place Saint-Lambert, the city's main commercial square, on a busy day when shoppers filled a nearby Christmas market. Five people were killed and more than 147 others were injured, seven of them seriously. The attacker then killed himself with a revolver.
Earlier that same morning, he had killed a 45-year-old woman, Antonietta Racano, at his apartment. She had been working as a cleaner for a neighbour and was reportedly lured to the flat under the pretext of work. Her body was hidden in a shed before he left for the city centre carrying a backpack of weapons. Beforehand, he had transferred money from his account to that of his girlfriend, a home-care nurse.
Witnesses at the square reported four explosions and gunfire, and it was initially thought that two or more assailants were involved. Stun grenades were thrown toward the courthouse and a bus shelter, and shots were fired with a 7.62×51mm NATO FN FAL from the rooftop of a bakery across the square. Police reached the scene quickly and sealed off the area.
Those killed in the attack included two teenage boys, aged 15 and 17, and a 17-month-old boy who died in hospital the same day. A 75-year-old woman died of her injuries on 15 December, and a 20-year-old man who had been in an induced coma since the attack died of head injuries on 23 December. Counting the woman killed at the apartment, six people died.
The attacker was identified as Nordine Amrani, a French-speaking Belgian welder of Moroccan origin who had been orphaned young and raised in foster homes. According to his lawyer he did not speak Arabic and was not Muslim, and he had no known links to terrorist groups. A Liège court had sentenced him in 2008 to 58 months in prison for possessing thousands of weapons parts, almost 10,000 rounds of ammunition, dozens of firearms, and 2,800 cannabis plants in the context of a criminal conspiracy; he had also been convicted of handling stolen goods and sex offences, and was released in October 2010. On the day of the attack he had been summoned to answer police questions about a sexual abuse case.
Belgian officials, including then Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo and Liège mayor Willy Demeyer, condemned the attack, and King Albert II and Queen Paola visited Liège the same day. The attack happened on the same day and hour as a separate shooting in Florence, Italy, though there is no indication the two were coordinated.
5 dated entries · 2008–2011
A Liège court sentences Nordine Amrani to 58 months in prison for weapons possession and related offences in the context of a criminal conspiracy.
Amrani is released from prison.
In the morning a 45-year-old woman is killed at Amrani's apartment; at 12:33 local time grenades and FN FAL rifle fire strike the Place Saint-Lambert in Liège, killing five and injuring more than 147, after which Amrani dies by suicide.
Claudette Putzeys, 75, dies of injuries sustained in the attack.
Laurent Kremer, 20, dies of head injuries after being in an induced coma since the attack.
7 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
45-year-old woman killed at the attacker's apartment on 13 December 2011; she had been working as a cleaner for a neighbour.[3]
75-year-old who died of her injuries on 15 December 2011.[3]
17-month-old boy who died in hospital on 13 December 2011.[3]
20-year-old who died of head injuries on 23 December 2011 after being in an induced coma since the attack.[3]
15-year-old boy killed at Place Saint-Lambert on 13 December 2011.[3]
17-year-old killed at Place Saint-Lambert on 13 December 2011.[3]
Perpetrator of the 13 December 2011 Liège attack, who died by suicide during it and was never charged or tried for it; separately convicted by a Liège court in 2008 of weapons possession and other offences, and released from prison in October 2010.[3]
3 cited
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
PressThe TelegraphAccessed Jul 5, 2026
PressBBC NewsAccessed Jul 5, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 5, 2026
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