Police in the central Dutch city of Utrecht said Monday they were investigating a shooting on a tram that left at least one person dead and several others injured as an attack with a possible “terrorist motive.”
Police, including heavily armed officers, flooded the area after the shooting that happened on a tram at a busy intersection at the October 21st Square tram station.
The shooter remained at large, prompting the Dutch government to put the country’s military police on “extra alert” at airports and “vital buildings” amid a manhunt.
Heavily armed anti-terror officers gathered in front of an apartment building just 200 yards from the scene of the deadly attack not long after the shooting. It was unclear whether the police believed the shooter could be holed up in the building. They were apparently holding their positions and awaiting further orders.
“In Utrecht there was a shooting at several locations,” Netherlands Counter-Terrorism Agency head Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg told a news conference. “A lot is still unclear at this point and local authorities are working hard to establish all the facts. What we already know is that a culprit is at large.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the situation “very worrying” and the country’s counterterror coordinator said in a tweet that a crisis team was meeting to discuss the incident.
Dutch police urged schools to keep their doors shut and locked, and the terror alert level in the Utrecht region was elevated to five, the highest possible.
The shooting in Holland came just three days after a terrorist attack in New Zealand by a white supremacist that left 50 people dead at two mosques. On Monday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arndern said her government had agreed to gun law reforms within 72 hours of the attack. The Australian suspect purchased all the weapons used in the attack legally in New Zealand.
