Man held in plot to attack rock concert by L.A. band

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch police said Thursday that they had prevented a terrorist attack at a rock concert in the city of Rotterdam after receiving concrete information from authorities in Spain, where a night of assaults last week left 15 people dead.

Few details about the conspiracy in the Netherlands were released, but police said they arrested a 22-year-old man at 2 a.m. Thursday in the Brabant region, southeast of Rotterdam, in connection with the investigation into plans for an attack at the Maassilo events venue, where Allah-Las, a band from Los Angeles, were to play.

Rotterdam police called off the concert after receiving the information from Spain about the venue and time of the potential attack, and they said that tip had led them to the suspect. The man arrested, who has not been identified, can be held for 72 hours. Police added that there was no longer an imminent terrorist threat.

The arrest of the suspect, whose house was searched by authorities, came about five hours after a Spanish citizen driving a van with Spanish license plates was taken into custody in Rotterdam after gas canisters were found in his vehicle.

The driver was detained for questioning after the concert had been called off, but he appeared to have posed little danger despite the discovery of the canisters: Authorities said he was drunk and have found nothing to link him to the terrorist threat.

The discovery of the canisters was an immediate source of concern in light of the attacks in Spain by a terrorist cell that had similar canisters at a bomb-making factory in a house in the coastal town of Alcanar. The cell also used a van in its attack in Barcelona.

A blast on the evening of Aug. 16 that destroyed the house in Alcanar was initially attributed to a gas explosion, but investigators later determined that the cell had stored more than 100 canisters in the house and had been planning to use them for an even deadlier attack that had to be abandoned.

Unlike its neighbors, Belgium and Germany, the Netherlands has been spared direct terrorist attacks on its soil in recent years, although its citizens have been victims of attacks elsewhere.

Security has been visibly ramped up in recent months across Europe, but on prominent public squares in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the police presence tends to be subdued, and it is still unusual to see an automatic rifle in the hands of Dutch authorities. At the seat of government in The Hague, parliament buildings are protected by well-armed national police officers, but government buildings are not.