Two Americans hurt in Dutch stabbing as police probe terror link
Two people who were seriously injured in a knife attack at Amsterdam’s Central Station are US citizens, the US ambassador said Saturday, as Dutch police probed a possible terror link.
“We are aware that both victims were US citizens and have been in touch with them and their families,” Pete Hoekstra said in a statement, AFP wrote.
Panic broke out at the Dutch capital’s main station shortly after midday Friday when the knife-wielding man stabbed two bystanders before he was shot and wounded by police.
Police later identified the suspect as a 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit.
He is being questioned in hospital under police guard and Dutch authorities said they were in close contact with their German counterparts for more details about his background.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the assailant did not know his victims and that he did not specifically target them, the police spokesman said — suggesting a random attack.
An Amsterdam police spokesman, Frans Zuiderhoek, said late Friday “we are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive.”
Another police spokesman, Rob van der Veen, said Saturday that “the police investigation is in full swing and we are looking at all angles”.
Further details of the two Americans injured were not immediately known, although one was reported to be a young man.
Hoekstra said the US is ready to “assist as appropriate, with our main priority as always being the safety and wellbeing of US citizens in the country”.
Witnesses described scenes of panic on Friday as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday.
“The two people are very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital,” said Van der Veen. Police on Saturday said they are in a satisfactory condition.
One witness said he saw a young man “stumble” into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand.
On Friday police quickly arrived at the scene with video images showing police ordering the suspect in English to “stay down” after he had been shot.
Images posted on social media showed security guards ushering passengers towards exits and paramedics arriving at the scene with stretchers.
A special police department opened a routine probe into why police shot the man.
The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbors in the past few years.
But amid a number of scares and reports that people linked to some of those attacks may have crossed briefly into the country, top Dutch security and intelligence officials have stressed that the threat level is substantial.