Man suspected of preparing terror attack on Allah-las gig
● Rock band to play Warsaw despite Rotterdam being cancelled
Dutch police have arrested a 22-year-old man after receiving a tip-off from Spanish colleagues and said he was suspected of preparing a “terrorist attack” on a concert by an American rock band.
The arrest in Brabant province, south of Rotterdam, came hours after police cancelled a performance by Los Angeles band Allah-las at a converted grain silo in the heart of the port city on Wednesday night.
“The suspicion is that the suspect is involved in the preparation of a terrorist attack,” Rotterdam police chief Frank Paauw said.
“There is no terror threat now any more.
“There is no threat because we have arrested a suspect and the information about the threat was so specific on the location of the event that, with that arrest, we can conclude that the threat is gone.”
Police searched the man’s home after his arrest but released no details of anything they found.
His identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines.
Meanwhile, a Spanish mechanic detained on Wednesday night while driving, apparently drunk, a white van containing a number of gas canisters close to the concert venue was to be questioned once he sobered up, police said.
However, he did not appear to be a terror suspect.
Police said a search of his home uncovered nothing to indicate he was linked to the threat.
Explosives experts who combed through the van’s contents found a few gas canisters but nothing suspicious, police said.
The 22-year-old suspect was being questioned by police and prosecutors.
If authorities want to pro long his detention they will have to arraign him at a closed-doors hearing with an investigative judge before the end of Friday, prosecution spokeswoman Jeichien de Graaff said.
Dutch counter-terror coordinator Dick Schoof commended the police action on Twitter, saying it was “alert, appropriate for the current threat level”.
Mr Schoof left the country’s threat level unchanged at “substantial”, the fourth step of a five-level scale.
It was not clear what the nature of the threat to the conwhy cert was, or if the band’s name played any role in the threat.
In an interview last year, band members said they chose the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy-sounding” name and did not realise it might cause offence.
“We get e-mails from Muslims, herein the us and around the world, saying they’re offended, but that absolutely wasn’t our intention,” lead singer Miles Michaud told the newspaper.
“We e-mail back and explain we chose the name, and mainly they understand.”
Police in Warsaw, Poland, said security was being beefed up for the band’s performance there last night.
Robert Szumiata of Warsaw police told the media that they had no information of any threat to the concert to be held at the Niebo, or Heaven, club in the Polish capital.
Still, he said that uniformed and plain-clothes police will be deployed at and around the concert site in order to “ensure security of people taking part in the concert and those who will find themselves in the area”.
Spain, already on high alert following last week’s deadly attacks in and near Barcelona, played a key role in the events of Wednesday and yesterday.
Aspanishcounter-terrorism official said Spain’s Civil Guard received “an alert indicating the possibility of an attack in a concert that was going to take place in Rotterdam”.
The Civil Guard shared the information with Dutch authorities on Wednesday and was investigating the threat, said the official.