Concert cancelled over bus bomb terror fears

A ROCK concert in Rotterdam was cancelled last night after police found a bus with Spanish licence plates loaded with gas canisters outside the venue.

Dutch authorities were tipped off about a terrorist threat by their Spanish counterparts, who have been on high alert after the terror attack in Barcelona last week that left 14 people dead.

An American rock group named after Allah, the Arabic word for God, had been due to play to around 1,000 fans at the Maassilo concert venue. The driver of the bus, who was taken into custody, was Spanish, reports said. Spanish and French police launched a Europe-wide manhunt last week for members of a terror cell that carried out the deadly van attack on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas last Wednesday.

There were no suggestions last night that the apparent foiled terrorist plot in Rotterdam was linked to the Barcelona cell. Sources said that the tip-off about the Rotterdam plot was the result of an investigation by the Spanish Civil Guard that had been under way for some time

Ahmed Aboutaleb, the mayor of Rotterdam, warned against “swift conclusions”. He said: “It would be wrong at this moment to pile up these facts and conclude there was a plan to attack with gas bottles, etc, because that was the picture last week in Barcelona. I would be careful with that,” he said.

Police sealed off the area around the venue and a bomb squad was examining the bus.

Allah-las is a four-piece band from Los Angeles. In an interview with a newspaper last year, band members said they chose their name because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and did not realise it might cause offence.