Dendermonde nursery attack

Dendermonde nursery attack
Dendermonde shown within Belgium
Location	Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde, Dendermonde, Belgium
Coordinates	51°1′10″N 4°6′40″E
Date	23 January 2009 10:00 a.m. (CET)
Attack type	Mass murder, stabbing
Weapons	Knife
Deaths	3
Injured	12
Perpetrator	Kim De Gelder

The Dendermonde nursery attack was a stabbing attack by Kim De Gelder on the Fabeltjesland daycare center in the village of Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde in Dendermonde, Belgium, at 10:00 a.m. CET (9:00 a.m. UTC) on 23 January 2009. Three people were stabbed to death, and twelve were mutilated in the attack. The daycare center is expected never to reopen.

Attack

The attacker, alleged to be Kim De Gelder, a 20 year-old Belgian from Sint-Niklaas, entered the Fabeltjesland nursery, located in Sint-Gillis-bij-Dendermonde in Dendermonde, Belgium, through an unlocked side door, claiming he had a question, and then entered one of the rooms. The man was reported to be wearing black and white makeup with his hair vividly coloured in red, similar to that of The Joker, the long-time foe of Batman, although it is not yet clear whether this was intended. Coincidentally, the attack also took place one year and one day after the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in The Dark Knight. A total of eighteen infants under the age of three and six adults were in the nursery at the time of the attack. Two infants and one adult were killed, six children, between one and three years old, were seriously injured, another four suffered minor injuries and nine escaped unscathed. The alleged perpetrator left the scene on his bike.

Victims

• Leon Garcia-Mannaert, a six-month old boy,
• Korneel Vermeir, a nine-month old boy,
• Marita Blindeman, a 54-year-old child minder.

Initial reports on Belgian television suggested that five people had been killed and twenty had been injured, with government officials only confirming the death of one adult and one child. This number was later increased, as another infant had died from the injuries he had sustained.

Arrest and aftermath

The mayor of Dendermonde, Piet Buyse, said, "The victims are being cared for and those who were not injured have been brought to a centre where they are receiving counseling."

A massive search operation was mounted, and a man was captured by police a short while later, in the nearby town of Lebbeke. Having been wounded during his capture, the man was taken to a hospital in Aalst, Belgium.

At a press conference on the evening of the attack, public prosecutor Christian Du Four provided the following information about the alleged offender, denying several early rumours:

He is a 20-year-old Belgian and was not under the influence of drugs or alcoholic beverages. He acts strangely and mocks his interrogators. He is not a patient of a psychiatric institution. He has so far given five different identities.

The attacker was later identified as Kim De Gelder on 25 January 2009. It has also been reported that some of the surviving children have needed plastic surgery due to serious mutilations.

Some 6,000 people marched through Dendermonde on 25 January 2009, laying hundreds of bouquets and stuffed animals outside the daycare centre as the Mayor of Dendermonde, Piet Buyse, announced that the Fabeltjesland nursery would never reopen.

On 26 January 2009, Belgian officials named Kim De Gelder as the suspect of a further, fourth murder, where a 73-year-old woman was stabbed to death in her apartment in Beveren, near Antwerp, on 16 January. Prosecutor Christian Du Four told journalists that there were "very clear indications of links between the murders", though de Gelder denies any involvement.