From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 4 hours ago, updated 38 minutes ago
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A 32-year-old man was arrested. He is suspected of opening fire in an apartment in Rotterdam before entering a nearby medical center.
Dutch police said three people, a 14-year-old girl, her mother and a teacher, were killed on Thursday after a 32-year-old man fired shots at a house and then a hospital in Rotterdam, in the southwestern Netherlands. Dutch police. The man who was arrested appears to have acted alone for reasons still unknown, police told the press. According to police, the shooter was known to authorities for animal abuse and was a student in the hospital.
“We cannot yet say anything about the motives for these terrible acts. “The investigation is ongoing,” Attorney General Hugo Hillenaar told reporters, emphasizing that the suspect is cooperating with the police. The man opened fire in a house in the Dutch port city, killing a 39-year-old woman and seriously wounding her 14-year-old daughter, who died shortly afterwards, police chief Fred Westerbeke said. He then entered a classroom at the Erasmus Hospital and killed a 46-year-old teacher. Each time he also set fires that were quickly extinguished but caused panic.
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A suspect in riot gear
Elite police units stormed into the hospital while stretcher bearers and ward staff tried to evacuate patients in wheelchairs or on stretchers. “It’s unbelievable,” said a general practitioner, Matthijs van der Poel, quoted by the online site Algemeen Dagblad. “Everyone is shocked and is watching the news with horror. I’m afraid that things like this cannot be avoided. The man is suspected of being the sole perpetrator of the shooting and there was no second shooter, police said.
Members of the medical staff leave the hospital. BAS CZERWINSKI / AFP Police enter the hospital where the shooting took place. BAS CZERWINSKI / AFP
Police previously said the suspect was wearing “combat gear,” was tall, had black 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. Images circulated in the press showed a ballet of helicopters and snipers stationed on neighboring rooftops.
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“I am sad and angry,” Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told the press and spoke of a “black day” for his city. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his “great dismay”. “My thoughts are with the victims of this attack, their families and everyone who was very afraid,” he wrote on X, the former Twitter. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima said their condolences were with those who are suffering “in great sadness.” Rotterdam is often the scene of shootings, generally attributed to settling scores between rival drug gangs. In 2019, three people were shot dead on a tram in Utrecht, sparking a large-scale manhunt. In 2011, the country was shocked when 24-year-old Tristan van der Lis killed six people and injured 10 others in a crowded shopping center.