Police chief Rob van Bree tells reporters: «I just heard that the suspect we were hunting has been arrested»
A suspect was arrested in a shooting that left three people dead and five wounded on a tram in the Netherlands Monday morning in what authorities said may have been a terror attack. The ensuing manhunt convulsed the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Dutch Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus said the attacker — identified as Turkish-born Gokmen Tanis, 37 — «was known» to justice authorities and had a criminal record, but would not elaborate. «If it had terror motives, that is being investigated. But it was very serious. The world shares our grief,» Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on television the country’s intelligence agency was investigating whether the attack was terrorism or personal, according to the Reuters news agency. The country’s official Anadolu news agency had said the suspect’s relatives believed he shot at someone close to the family due to «family issues.
