Belgian knifeman accused of fourth murder

The suspect in a gruesome knife attack at a Belgian creche last week was accused on Monday of the "abominable" murder of an elderly lady and planning attacks on other nurseries.

Three days after the deaths of two babies and a day-care worker, prosecutor Christian Du Four said that 20-year-old unemployed man Kim De Gelder was probably also the murderer of a former farmwoman earlier this month.

"The author of the deeds is also the author of an abominable crime committed against a 73-year-old woman on January 16," Du Four told journalists.

"There were very concrete elements linking the two incidents," Du Four said, noting that both occured on Fridays at roughly the same time without elaborating further.

De Gelder was charged on Saturday with killing two babies, aged six and nine months, and a nurse in a macabre knife attack at a creche in Dendermonde, southwest of Antwerp, on Friday.

The elderly woman's murder had left authorities puzzled as their was no obvious motive with no signs of theft. She was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Beveren, near Antwerp, as her husband was at the neighbours.

According to Flemish television channel VRT, incriminating evidence against De Gelder had been found at the site of the woman's murder.

Although De Gelder, who was arrested on Friday shortly after the creche attack, began speaking to authorities on Sunday, Du Four said that he had not spoken about either incident and therefore had not confessed to them.

The prosecutor said that De Gelder probably would have committed attacks on other nurseries during his rampage on Friday if police had not arrested him.

"He had a list of three creches in Dendermonde, including the one where he acted," Du Four said.

However, investigators have established no other links between the suspect and the victims or the towns in which they occurred.

In an attack that shocked the nation, a man barged into the day-care centre with a 30-centimetre (12-inch) long knife and began slashing some of the children lying in beds, none more than three years old.

As well as the three killed, 10 children and two staff were wounded, some seriously.

The nursery nurse was killed as she tried to protect her charges.

Du Four said that although black mascara had been found in De Gelder's backpack, it was not clear whether he was made up at the time of the knife attack as some witnesses have said.

They claimed that his face was painted white with black around the eyes and his hair dyed red at the time of the attack, raising speculation of a link to a sect or video games or the sinister Joker character in the Batman movies.

"The witnesses have contradicted one another on this. Some say he was made-up, others don't," said Du Four.

"What's certain is that he was not made up at the time of his arrest. I think that the Joker lead is a false lead," he added.

Described in press interviews with former acquaintances as "immature," "shy" and a "loner", De Gelder was also fan of horror movies and video games.

After having little success with studies to be a nurse, he worked in a hypermarket until he quit several months ago.

Thousands of horrified and grieving Belgians marched on Sunday through Dendermonde in a grim procession which police said drew as many as 8,000 people.