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In this image taken from video, injured people are treated by members of the public, as they lay injured in the moments immediately following a grenade attack in the city center of Liege, Belgium, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Wissam Anabtawi, APTV) TV OUT

A man armed with grenades and an assault rifle attacked holiday shoppers Tuesday at a central square in the Belgian city of Liege. Five people died, including the attacker, and 122 others were wounded, officials said.

It was not immediately clear what motivated the attack in the busy Place Saint-Lambert square, the central entry point to downtown shopping streets in the city in eastern Belgium. The attack prompted hundreds of shoppers to stampede down old city streets, fleeing explosions and bullets.

Interior Ministry official Peter Mertens said the attack did not involve terrorism but did not explain why he thought that.

Belgian officials identified the attacker as Nordine Amrani, 33, a Liege resident who they said had done jail time for offences involving guns, drugs and sexual abuse. He was among the dead, but Liege Prosecutor Danielle Reynders told reporters it was unclear if he committed suicide or died by accident. He did not die at the hands of police, she said.

The other dead were two teenage boy students aged 15 and 17 and a 75-year-old woman, while an 18-month-old toddler died Tuesday evening in the hospital, Liege police said.

Reynders said Amrani had been summoned for police questioning on Tuesday but the reason for that was not clear. He still had a number of grenades with him when he died, she said.

Officials said Amrani left his home in Liege with a backpack, armed with hand grenades, a revolve and an FAL assault rifle. He walked alone to the central square, then got onto a platform that gave him an ideal view of the square below, which was bedecked with a huge Christmas tree and crowded with shoppers.

From there, Amrani lobbed three hand grenades toward a nearby bus shelter, which serves 1,800 buses a day, then opened fire upon the crowd. The explosions sent shards of glass from the bus shelter across a wide area.

"I heard a loud boom," said witness Dimitri Degryse. "I thought it was something on my car that was broken or something. Then a few seconds after a second boom, and I saw all the glass breaking, I saw people running, screaming."

As soon as the shooting began, hundreds fled the square as well as a nearby Christmas market. Video from the scene showed people, including a large group of children, rampaging through the city centre to seek cover, some still carrying shopping bags.

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AP correspondents Don Melvin, Gabriele Steinhauser and Robert Wielaard in Brussels contributed to this report.