Rotterdam stabbing suspect suspected of having “terrorist motive”. Police say witnesses say the alleged killer shouted “Allahu akbar” as he raged with knives.
Rotterdam police are appealing for witnesses to a stabbing attack that left one person dead and another seriously injured on Thursday evening.
A 32-year-old man from Rotterdam was killed and a 33-year-old man from Switzerland was seriously injured in the stabbing near the Erasmus Bridge, a historic monument, police said in a statement.
The injured victim was taken care of by emergency services and hospitalized.
A suspect was arrested in the Dutch port city on Thursday evening after being subdued by witnesses and police.
The Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday that the attacker is suspected of “murder and attempted murder with a terrorist motive.” Witnesses told police they heard the suspect shout “Allahu akbar,” which translates to “God is greatest.”
“This is part of the investigation”police spokesman Wessel Stolle said on Wednesday evening.
The suspect is a 22-year-old man from the city of Amersfoort in central Holland, who allegedly attacked his victims with two large knives. In accordance with Dutch privacy guidelines, police have not revealed the identity of the suspect or the victims of the stabbing.
A sports instructor, Reniël Renato David Litecia, said he hit the attacker with two sticks after seeing him attack someone and managed to grab the knives and throw them away.
He told The Associated Press that he initially thought it was a fight, “But when I started running in that direction, I saw that it was not a fight. It was a man armed with two long knives who was stabbing another young man and when I started screaming, he turned around and started approaching all the people around him.”
Another police spokeswoman, Kristel Arntz, said the attacker allegedly attacked one person in an underground car park and a second victim at one end of the bridge over the New Meuse.
