Two policewomen were wounded by a machete-wielding man.
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The man injured the two officers outside the main police station in Charleroi in the Hainaut province.
The junior minister for migration, Theo Francken, said K.B. had been living illegally in Belgium and had “twice been ordered to leave the country”.
A police officer stands guard in Charleroi following a machete attack.
Soon after the attack, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel wrote on his twitter account: “I strongly condemn the attack in Charleroi”.
Prime Minister Charles Michel said on August 7 that the attacker’s shouts of “Allahu akbar” as he attacked the officers factored into the decision to investigate the case as “attempted terrorist murder”.
The man was shot by a third officer on the scene and later died in hospital.
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Sunday that there were “indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive” and said it had taken over the investigation from the prosecutor’s office in Charleroi.
IS-linked Amaq Agency said that Saturday’s machete attack in Belgian city of Charleroi was claimed by ISIS.
The assailant slashed at two policewomen, leaving one with “deep wounds to the face”, according to the Belga news agency.
Belgian police are taking additional measures to ensure officers’ safety, Michel said without giving details.
“Since there are indications that the attack may have been inspired by a terrorist motive, the federal prosecutor’s office made a decision to take over the investigation from the district prosecutor’s office of Charleroi”, the federal office said in a statement.
The country’s threat analysis unit, OCAM, has decided not to change the security alert level at present, Michel said. He was carrying a rucksack but not explosives or other weapons were found.
In March’s Brussels attacks, three men of North African descent carried out a triple suicide bombing on Brussels airport and the Maalbeek metro station, leaving 32 dead.
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Belgium has been at Level 3 on a four-point terrorism alert scale since the attacks in Paris on November 13 that killed 130 victims.
