Van driver arrested in concert terror alert

A CONCERT in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam by American rock group Allah-Las was cancelled last night amid a terror alert.

Police stopped a van with Spanish licence plates containing a number of gas bottles close to the venue. The driver was being questioned.

The mayor of Rotterdam said the driver had been detained after a warning from police in Spain, which itself suffered terror attacks that claimed 15 lives in Barcelona and Cambrils last week.

“Police took this information seriously enough that after discussion with organisers it was decided to cancel the event,” a Rotterdam police statement said.

Concert organiser Rotown said earlier on Twitter that the concert venue, a former grain silo called Maassilo, was being evacuated because of the unspecified threat and concertgoers would get their money back. The show had not started when the decision to cancel it was made.

Dutch television showed officers in body armour outside Maassilo and what appeared to be members of the Los Angeles band leaving the venue in a white van with a police escort. In an interview with The

Guardian last year, band members said they chose the word All, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and did not realise it might cause offence.

“We get emails from Muslims, here in 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 email back and explain why we chose the name, and mainly they understand.”