Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'

Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'

Witnesses said the 22-year-old man attacked bystanders late Thursday near the city's iconic Erasmus bridge

A suspect involved in a fatal knife attack in the port city of Rotterdam is being suspected of murder with a terror motive, Dutch prosecutors said on Friday.

Witnesses said the 22-year-old man attacked bystanders late Thursday with "large knives" near the city's iconic Erasmus bridge, a popular spot for fitness training classes close to a cafe and bar area.

A 32-year-old man from Rotterdam was fatally wounded. A 33-year-old Swiss national suffered injuries and was admitted to hospital.

"The Public Prosecution Service currently suspects the 22-year-old man of murder and attempted murder with a terrorist motive," public prosecutors said.

"The investigation conducted so far indicated that the suspect may be ideologically driven," they added in a statement. 

"For example, the suspect shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) several times while committing the acts," the statement said.

The suspect was arrested after the attack. Police said he was seriously injured and had been taken to hospital.  

National news agency ANP quoted witnesses as saying he apparently attacked people at random, shortly after 8:00 pm. 

Meanwhile the unidentified Swiss "has been discharged from hospital", prosecutors said.

The investigation was continuing and other motives for the attack "could also not explicitly be ruled out", they added.

The suspect -- who had previously been convicted on violence charges -- briefly appeared in court on Friday.

He remained in custody, prosecutors said.

The Netherlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots but not on the scale of other European countries, such as France or Britain.

In 2019, the country was stunned by a shooting spree on a tram in the city of Utrecht that claimed four lives.

A Turkish-born man identified as Gokmen Tanis later admitted a terror motive for the rampage that virtually shut down the country's fourth biggest city.

Also in 2019, Dutch police charged two suspected jihadists with planning a terror attack using suicide bombs and car bombs. Authorities said an attack was planned that year.

A young Afghan man identified only as "Jawed S." stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdam Central Station in 2018, later telling judges he wanted "to protect the Prophet Mohammed".

The assault came a day after far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders announced he was cancelling a plan to stage a cartoon competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammed.

At the time Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid urged Muslims to attack Dutch troops after Wilders' "hostile act by this country (the Netherlands) against all Muslims".

In the most serious incident involving a terror attack, outspoken Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network.

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