Belgian Police Women Attacked By Machete-Wielding Muslim Shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’

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BRUSSELS – A machete-wielding Muslim  man shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is the greatest) wounded two policewomen in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi on Saturday before being shot and injured, local police said.

One of the policewomen was taken to hospital with “deep wounds to the face” while the other was slightly injured, Belga news agency said.

The machete-wielding Muslim attacked the two female police officers in front of the main police station before being shot dead by another officer, in what the prime minister has said appeared to be a terrorist act.

Belgium has been on high security alert for months since suicide bombers hit Brussels airport and a subway station near the European Union’s institutions on March 22, killing 32 people.

The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Separately on July 30, Belgian authorities charged a 33-year-old man, identified as Nourredine H., with attempting to commit “terrorist murder” and “taking part in the activities of a terrorist organisation.”

Belgium was also a springboard for the Islamic State cell which carried out the November 13 2015 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people, investigators say.