The knife maniac who murdered two children and a carer at a Belgian nursery on Friday is also thought to have killed an elderly woman a week earlier, police said today.

A man accused of a day-care centre stabbing spree was carrying a backpack of weapons and the addresses of three other nurseries, according to Belgian authorities.

A 20-year-old man was being questioned today after two toddlers and a carer were stabbed to death by in a frenzied attack at a nursery.

Police are searching for 20 fugitive convicts today, a day after they overpowered guards and escaped from a prison in northern Belgium, officials said.