Stupor in Rotterdam. Two people were killed and a young girl is in distress after a double shooting in the Dutch city on Thursday, police said. An armed 32-year-old man in riot gear opened fire on a house and then a hospital in Rotterdam, southwestern Netherlands. There were fires in both places, but they were extinguished.
“People were killed in the two shootings in Rotterdam. “We will first inform the family and relatives and provide further explanations later,” the city police said in a statement. According to authorities, elite police units searched the Dutch city’s hospital in search of the suspect armed with a pistol. The motive for the attack remains unknown, local news agency ANP said, citing police.
“A lot of panic”
The man is suspected of being the sole perpetrator of the shooting and there was no second shooter, police said. Footage at the scene showed people, including doctors and patients, leaving the hospital as police officers wearing bulletproof vests entered. Police helicopters flew overhead. Doctors in white coats transported patients on stretchers and wheelchairs.
Police previously said the suspect was wearing “combat gear,” was tall, had dark hair and was carrying a backpack. “First there was a shooting on the fourth floor. Four or five shots were fired. “Then a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the education center,” said a medical student quoted by television station RTL without giving his name. “There was a lot of panic and shouting… I didn’t hear any shots, just panic,” another eyewitness said, quoted by public broadcaster NOS.