Utrecht tram shooting: Three people killed in possible terror attack
A gunman attacks a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht in what the city's mayor has described as a likely terror attack.
Monday 18 March 2019 17:51, UK
Three people have been killed and five injured in a shooting on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
The city's mayor Jan van Zanen said authorities were treating the incident, which happened just before 11am local time, as a terrorist attack.
He said: "We cannot exclude - even stronger, we assume - a terror motive.
"Likely there is one attacker, but there could be more," he added.
As he spoke, police were seen at a number of properties in the city but they seemed particularly interested in an apartment block a few hundred metres from the shooting.
Local media reported that the building was connected to the gunman, but police did not confirm this.
During the afternoon, police released a CCTV image of Gökmen Tanis, a Turkish-born 37-year-old man whom they said was "associated with the incident". They warned he should not be approached by members of the public.
After the shooting, police moved quickly to close the scene and there were very few witness accounts reported by those who saw the incident.
But Jimmy de Koster, who lives nearby, told RTV Utrecht that several shots had been fired and that he had seen a woman lying on the ground shouting: "I didn't do anything."
Mr De Koster said: "At that moment I heard pang pang pang three times, four men walked very fast towards her and they tried to drag her away and then I heard pang pang pang again and those guys let go of that woman again."
Bernhard Jens, a police spokesman, said one person may have fled the scene by car, and that the possibility of more than one gunman being involved had not been ruled out.
Soon after the attack, Dutch authorities raised the terror alert for the region to the maximum level and security was strengthened at key buildings in the country, such as the main airport near Amsterdam.
German authorities stepped up surveillance of the Dutch border, and were initially told to look out for a red Renault Clio car. It was later found abandoned in Utrecht.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: "Our nation was hit by an attack in Utrecht...a terror motive cannot be excluded.
"The first reports have led to disbelief and disgust. Innocent people have been struck by violence... we are now doing everything we can to find the perpetrator or perpetrators as soon as possible.
"That is now our complete focus."
Utrecht is the Netherlands' fourth largest city, with a population of around 340,000. The shooting took place in Kanaleneiland, a residential district on the outskirts of the city which has a large immigrant population.