One person is dead and another seriously injured after a man armed with “two long knives” ran amok near a Rotterdam landmark

One person is dead and another is seriously injured after they were reportedly attacked by a man with “two long knives” in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.

After reports emerged of a knife attacker on the loose on Thursday evening, local police were called to the Erasmus Bridge, a local landmark.

There they found two victims, one of them fatally injured.

Police also arrested the suspect who taken to hospital for treatment.

Police spokesman Wessel Stolle said officers were investigating the stabbing.

The alleged attacker is said to have stabbed people indiscriminately

The horror occurred near the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, local police said

Mr Stolle said there was no immediate information on the motive, but “we are examining all possible scenarios”.

The Dutch daily newspaper “De Telegraaf” cited witnesses on site who reported that a man had randomly attacked people.

Onlookers claimed the stabber was armed with two blades and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” the Arabic phrase meaning “God is great,” as he attacked the people.

Mr Stolle said police on the scene also heard the man shout the phrase and that “it was part of the investigation”.

A physical education teacher, Reniel Renato David Litecia, said he hit the attacker with two sticks after seeing him attack someone and managed to take the knives from him and throw them away.

He said he initially thought it was a fight, “but when I ran in that direction, I saw it wasn't a fight.”

The instructor continued: “It was a man with two long knives stabbing another young man, and when I started screaming, he turned around and started walking towards everyone who was near him.”

Another police spokeswoman, Kristel Arntz, said the stabber probably attacked a person in an underground car park.

She said a second victim was believed to have been tied up near a busy terrace at the end of the bridge over the New Maas river that flows through Rotterdam.

Ms Arntz also said it was too early in the investigation to determine a motive.

She said: “We have arrested a suspect and will question him.”

“We will look at all the witness statements and then examine what the possible motive was.”

The identities of the victims and the suspect were not immediately clear.