BAS CZERWINSKI / AFP
Dutch police officers enter the Erasmus University medical center in Rotterdam on September 28, 2023, which has been cordoned off after two reported shootings
NETHERLANDS – This Thursday, September 28, three people were killed, a 14-year-old girl, her mother and a teacher, after a 32-year-old man shot at a house and then at a hospital in Rotterdam, southwest of the Netherlands had, as the Dutch police said.
The man who was arrested appears to have acted alone for reasons still unknown, police told the press. He was known to authorities for animal abuse and was a student at the hospital. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he is cooperating with investigators.
Armed and wearing riot gear, he first opened fire at a house in the Dutch port city, killing a 39-year-old woman and seriously wounding her 14-year-old daughter, 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, as you can see in the tweet below.
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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.
“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,” said another witness, quoted by public broadcaster NOS.
Rotterdam is often the scene of shootings, generally attributed to settling scores between rival drug gangs. Authorities are expected to hold a press conference soon to provide further details.
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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 Vlis killed six people and injured 10 others in a crowded shopping center.
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