THE two Belgian schoolgirls whose bodies were found on Wednesday were strangled and one of them was raped, investigators said as mourners left a mountain of flowers and cards at a shrine to the stepsisters.

The news confirmed the worst fears surrounding the fate of Nathalie Mahy, 10, and Stacy Lemmens, 7, whose deaths have plunged Belgium into gloom and a bout of soul-searching, reviving memories of Marc Dutroux, the serial paedophile murderer.

The girls’ bodies were found deep inside a storm drain beneath the undergrowth next to a railway track 500 yards from the bar in Liège where they were last seen 18 days ago.

Anne Bourguignont, the public prosecutor, said yesterday that post-mortem examinations showed that both girls had died from suffocation as a result of being strangled.

She said that they had probably been killed around the day that they went missing. The parents, who have arranged funerals for tomorrow and Monday, viewed the bodies yesterday and were informed of the results of the examinations.

Ms Bourguignont announced that Abdallah Ait-Oud, 39, a local man, who has been charged with kidnapping the girls, would now also be charged with rape and murder.

Mr Ait-Oud, who has previously been convicted of raping a child, insists that he is innocent, and handed himself in after the police said they were searching for him. Investigators have not ruled out that he may have had an accomplice, amid speculation that it would have been difficult for one man to abduct both girls.

As Belgium went into mourning, the national parliament cancelled a session as a sign of respect, and several newspapers published their front pages in black. La Libre Belgique declared simply: “The horror, again.”

Ten years ago, Dutroux abuducted two eight-year-old girls from the streets of Liège, held them captive in a dungeon and serially raped them before they starved to death.

Mourners holding white roses made their way across Liège yesterday to the makeshift shrine on a bridge above the railway line where the girls were found. Men, women and children, some in black, queued in silence to sign a book of condolences, and some made the sign of the cross. On top of the growing pile of soft toys and flowers, surrounded by candles, one card said: “Poor little angels, rest in peace. We think of you with all our heart.” A white sheet covered in handprints from a local school said: “Two small, white butterflies.”

As two young sisters laid two flowers and a green frog, one asked her mother: “Why did they do this?” Emma, a mother of four, whose children knew Nathalie and Stacy, said: “This sad news has really crushed my heart. I can’t help thinking it could have been one of mine.”

The girls were last seen on June 10 outside the Aux Armuriers bar as Nathalie’s mother, Catherine Dizier and Stacy’s father, Thierry Lemmens, drank after a street party.

NATIONAL HEADLINES

“The horror! Belgium lives a new nightmare”

LA DERNIÈRE HEURE

“The grief and the anger”

LA MEUSE

“The horror, again”

LA LIBRE BELGIQUE

“Several killers?”

LE SOIR