BRUSSELS: Belgian police arrested a suspect after a local mayor had his throat slashed in a graveyard, authorities said Tuesday as they probed a murder that shocked the country. Alfred Gadenne, 71, was found dead on Monday in a cemetery where he opened and locked the gates every day, near his home in Mouscron, near the French border. Local media said the suspect is an 18-year-old who attacked the mayor to avenge his father, a former town employee who was sacked and committed suicide in 2015. The case sparked strong emotion on Tuesday in Belgium. Prime Minister Charles Michel on Twitter said he learned “with alarm” the death of Gadenne, who he said was widely liked by all. Mouscron, a town of about 60,000 people, is known for its pubs and nightlife that attracts revellers from nearby France. </s> Soldiers have shot dead a man in Brussels after he charged troops with a knife in what authorities said was a terror attack.

The man twice shouted "Allahu akbar", Arabic for "God is great", as he charged the soldiers, said Esther Natus, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office.

"We do consider it a terror attack," Ms Natus said.

She did not identify the man or confirm whether he was known to police, saying only that "the suspect is dead" and one of the soldiers was slightly wounded.

Police secure a scene in downtown Brussels after a reported knife attack on Belgian Army soldiers this evening. Picture: AP

Brussels mayor Philippe Close said three soldiers came under attack and one had been taken to hospital.

Federal Police spokesman Jonathan Pfunde said the attacker had been "neutralised" and Belgium's anti-terror crisis centre tweeted that the situation was "under control".

"All our support is with our soldiers," prime minister Charles Michel said via Twitter.

"Our security services remain on alert. We are following the situation closely."

Associated Press television images showed police had sealed off a main street near the Grand Place, a central square that is a popular tourist site.

Thomas da Silva Rosa, who lives near where the incident took place on Boulevard Emile Jacquemain, said he saw the attacker lying in the street in the aftermath.

"I live right in front of the station. It was already blocked by police at the scene and there was a man lying on the ground. The police said he had been shot by soldiers," said the public affairs consultant.

"He was lying on the ground, appeared dead."

Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers killed 32 people in attacks on March 22 2016, on Brussels' main airport and subway system.

Soldiers and extra police have been deployed at public buildings and around large gatherings for more than a year. </s> Police in Detroit say they are tracking a possible serial killer who they believe has raped and murdered at least three women in the last three months.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig made the revelation Wednesday after a third victim was found earlier in the day.

According to Craig, police are searching for a man who is targeting sex workers in their 50s. All the victims were found in vacant homes.

Craig said police are reaching out to sex workers in the area for tips, but that many are reluctant to speak to officers. He urged any sex workers in the area to “use extreme caution” when entering vacant homes. He also asked people who live near the crime scenes to reach out to police if they see any suspicious activity.

“We’re not trying to create fear in the community,” Craig said. “But it is a pause for concern for the sex workers who are out in our community engaged in sex acts. Right now it seems the suspects is targeting sex workers who engage in illicit sexual acts in vacant dwellings.”

Mel Baggett, the president of Night Angels, a Christian nonprofit that works with sex-trafficking victims in the Detroit area, says the women being targeted are particularly vulnerable.

“Because society looks at them in such a minimalist way, they are targets for hate crimes, beatings, assaults and rape,” he says. “These men say ‘Oh, she’s just a hooker, just a person on the street,’ so these people are victimized all the time.”

The first victim was found on March 19 on Detroit’s east side. Craig said that police discovered the decomposing body of a woman in a vacant building, but initially believed she had died of an overdose. Craig said on May 20 the medical examiner determined that the woman had actually died from blunt force trauma.

Then on May 24, police discovered the body of a second woman partially clothed in a vacant home. While the medical examiner has still not determined her cause of death, Craig said aspects of the crime are similar to the first, so there was “cause for concern.”

Then on Wednesday, a third woman’s body was discovered in a vacant building in the same area by a fellow sex worker. According to Craig, based on the investigation “It appears that this is a suspect who is targeting sex workers.”

He added he would not give further details as to why police believe the three deaths were linked, but said evidence from the investigation is consistent with just one suspect having committed the three murders. As of Thursday, police have not identified or released photos of the victims.

Detroit ranks as one of America’s most dangerous cities, with 267 killings in 2017, according to the FBI. The Detroit Police Department has also struggled with staffing shortages in recent years.

Baggett says news of a potential serial killer has brought attention to women on the streets of Detroit. But, there needs to be more awareness of how women end up in sex work in the first place to prevent this kind of violence from happening.

“This case is getting notoriety because police pieced it together, it could very well be a serial killer,” he says. “But we see this ugliness all the time, our friends getting assaulted, murdered, raped, robbed… The Detroit police are becoming enlightened to these issues and changing their perspective, but society in general are not.”
Prostitutes in Brussels' Rue d'Aerschot red-light district go on strike today after one of their colleagues is found murdered this morning.