Man attacks 2 policewomen with machete

A machete-wielding man wounded two policewomen in southern Belgium on Saturday before being shot dead, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of attacks in Europe.

The attack outside the main police station in the city of Charleroi, around 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Brussels, left one of the policewomen with "deep wounds to the face" while the other was slightly injured, Belga news agency said.

Charleroi police said the attacker was shot and killed, while the two victims were out of danger.

The assailant "hasn't been identified yet", Prime Minister Charles Michel told the TV station RTL-TVI.

"But it seems once more to be an attack with a terrorist connotation."

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

The attacks were claimed by the Daesh (IS) group.

Charleroi police spokesman David Quinaux told RTL-TVI that the assailant arrived outside the police station at around 4pm (1400 GMT).

"He immediately took a machete out of the sports bag he was carrying and violently struck at the faces of the two policewomen who were on guard duty," said Quinaux.

A third policewoman shot the assailant, who died later in hospital.

Belgian Interior Minister Jean Jambon condemned a "disgusting act".

The country's terror threat level was assessed in the light of the attack, but was left "unchanged for the time being," Jambon said on Twitter.

It currently stands at level three, meaning a "possible or probable" threat, on a scale of four.

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