One dead and one injured in knife attack in Rotterdam

The Hague. One person is said to have been killed and another seriously injured in a knife attack in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. Police announced that a suspect had been arrested. He also sustained injuries. Police spokesman Wessel Stolle said the attack took place on Thursday evening near the Erasmus Bridge. There is no information yet on a motive, and investigations are being carried out in all directions.

The newspaper “De Telegraaf” reported, citing eyewitnesses, that a man randomly attacked people with two knives and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is great” in Arabic. Some Islamist extremists use the expression like a battle cry. In doing so, they are effectively hijacking the central religious formula of Islam, which has been used by Muslims around the world for centuries. Stolle said the police were aware of this information. It was part of the investigation.

Fitness trainer confronted attacker

Fitness coach Reniël Renato David Litecia said he hit the attacker with two sticks after seeing him attack someone and managed to steal the knives and throw them away. At first I thought it was a fight, “but when I ran in that direction I saw it wasn't a fight.”

It was a man with two long knives who stabbed another young man. “When I started screaming, he turned around and started attacking everyone who was around him.”

Police spokeswoman Kristel Arntz said it is suspected that the attacker attacked a person in a parking lot and then another victim near the bridge that spans the Maas. It is too early to determine a motive. “We have arrested a suspect, we will question him.” “We will look at the witness statements and then we will look into what the possible motive was,” she said.

RND/AP/dpa