Video shows moment terrorist is gunned down after killing two female police officers

DISTRESSING CONTENT WARNING: Dramatic footage has revealed the moment a terrorist who killed two female police officers in Belgium was gunned down by police.

The gunman, named as Benjamin Herman by Belgian media, shot Lucile Garcia, 45, and Soraya Belkacemi, 53, and a 22-year-old male passer-by dead in the centre of Liege on Tuesday.

Video shows tactical units closing in on Herman after he took a woman hostage at a nearby school.

He then emerges a short time later, opening fire on officers who shield behind vehicles surrounding the building.

Terrified pupils of the school run for cover as multiple shots were sent in the direction of the gunman.

During a relentless exchange of bullets, which reportedly left four officers injured, Herman was shot and killed by officers.

Video on social media shows people scurrying for safety on Liege’s central boulevard d’Avroy with shots and sirens being heard in the background.

Liege Police chief Christian Beaupere says that a knife-wielding man had initially stabbed Belkacemi and Garcia before taking their handguns and shooting them both dead.

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Chief Beaupere said the attacker also wounded four other officers.

“The goal of the attacker was to target the police,” he said.

While Belgian media identified the suspect in Tuesday’s attack as Benjamin Herman, a Belgian national born in 1982, authorities declined to confirm his identity.

He was a prison inmate on a 48-hour leave at the time of the incident.

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Prime Minister Charles Michel says Herman was indirectly mentioned in state security reports on radicalisation, but did not have his name on a list maintained by an anti-terror assessment group.

A Belgian politician suggested Herman had been radicalised in jail, apparently as a convert to Islam.

With AP