Horror on the tram as three passengers killed in Dutch gun rampage
A GUNMAN killed three passengers on a tram during a rampage in the Dutch city of Utrecht yesterday.
The suspect, named by police as Gokmen Tanis, 37, sprayed bullets ‘wildly’ as he opened fire in a carriage.
Five others were injured in the shooting at a busy intersection in one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands.
Hours later, the Turkish-born suspect was arrested after police released a photograph of him wearing a hoodie on the tram’s CCTV minutes before the attack at 10.45am. Armed police tracked him to a block of flats 200 yards from the scene.
The Dutch government yesterday raised the terrorism threat to the highest possible level while police were dispatched to airports and mosques. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said ‘a terror motive is not excluded’. The attack came three days after 50 people were shot dead in a terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand. Last night the BBC reported that Tanis had once been arrested for an alleged connection to Islamic State.
However, the motive for the shooting was unclear as it was suggested the attack may have been a part of a family feud. Friends said the jobless loner suffered from mental health problems after a drink and drug addiction and may have been trying to attack his brother’s exwife. It was also reported that the divorced father-of-one was not religious and had a history of run-ins with the police and a long criminal record including involvement in a shooting in 2013.
Dutch media reported that Tanis had appeared in court two weeks ago facing charges of attempted rape.
Daan Molenaar, who was sitting at the front of the tram when the shooting began, said: ‘The first thing I thought was, this is some kind of revenge or something, or somebody who’s really mad and grabbed a pistol.’