Gokmen Tanis: Dutch tram shootings could be terrorist

[Anthea]

HOLLAND SHOOTING

At least one dead and multiple wounded after gunman 'with possible terrorist motive' opens fire on Dutch tram before going on the run, as nearby schools are put on lockdown[/b]

A number of people injured in a shooting in Utrecht, central Netherlands on Monday morning

One or several gunmen, 'who may have had a terrorist motive', opened fire on a tram in the city centre

The assailant or assailants reportedly fled the scene and police have not made any arrests

At least one person has died and a number of people injured in a shooting 'with possible terrorist motive' in the central Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday morning, local news reports.

One or several gunmen opened fire on a tram in the city centre at around 10.45 local time on Monday morning, before fleeing the scene, witnesses say.

Police say one or multiple assailants are still at large, and have since instructed all schools, as well as mosques and transportation hubs, in the city to keep their doors closed.

Shortly after 12.30 local time, the Dutch government raised the terrorism threat level to the highest possible in the province of Utrecht.

The casualty was reported by the Dutch ANP news agency, which stated that the victim was completely covered with a sheet and lying on the tracks between two carriages. There was no immediate official confirmation.

Police have so far spoken of one gunman but did not rule out the possibility there might be others, the ANP news agency quoted police as saying.

The Utrecht police said a square at a tram station outside the city centre had been cordoned off as emergency services attend the scene.

Officials added that trauma helicopters were sent to the incident at 24 Oktoberplein, and they are appealing to the public to stay away to allow first responders to do their work.

They had no further details about the incident and could not say how badly hurt the victims were.

'Several shots were fired in a tram and several people were injured. Helicopters are at the scene and no arrests have been made,' said police spokesman Joost Lanshage.

Dutch media quoted an eyewitness as saying he had seen a woman lying on the ground amid some kind of confrontation. Several men ran away from the scene, the witness said.

Local resident Jimmy De Koster witnessed the incident and told De Telegraaf: 'I was standing at the traffic lights on 24 Oktoberplein and I saw a woman lying down, I think she would have been between 20 and 35 years old.

'She shouted 'I didn't do anything'.'

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the situation 'very worrying' and the country's counterterror coordinator said in a tweet that a crisis team was meeting to discuss the situation.

Utrecht is located about 25 miles south of Amsterdam in central Holland.

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[Anthea]

Three dead in Dutch tram shooting

Police released this image of Gokmen Tanis

Please click to enlarge:


Three people have been killed following a shooting on a tram in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, the city's mayor says.

Nine others were injured in the incident, which police say appears to be a terrorist attack.

Police are looking for a 37-year-old Turkish man named as Gokmen Tanis and have warned people not to approach him.

Schools have closed and security has been increased while counter-terrorism police work to find the gunman.

"Our country today has been jolted by an attack," Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Monday. "Police and prosecutors are looking into what exactly happened."

"What's known now is that there was shooting at people sitting in a tram," he added. He described the attack as "deeply disturbing".

"Priority is finding gunman"

"We cannot exclude a terrorist motive," Dutch anti-terrorism co-ordinator Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg told a news conference on Monday.

He added that there had been shootings at "several locations", but did not elaborate on where these were.

The tram attack happened at about 10:45 local time (09:45 GMT) and one witness told local media that "a man started shooting wildly".

Another witness told Dutch public broadcaster NOS that he had helped an injured woman with blood on her hands and clothes.

"I brought her into my car and helped her," he said. "When the police arrived, she was unconscious."

Counter-terrorism police earlier surrounded a house near the 24 Oktoberplein junction, where the tram attack took place, but no arrests appear to have been made.

A local businessman told BBC Turkish that the suspect had previously fought in Russia's republic of Chechnya.

Jihadist groups, including those aligned with the Islamic State (IS) group, have long operated in the region.

"He was arrested because of his connections with [ISIS] but released later," the businessman told the BBC.

Special task forces of the Dutch police surrounds a building in their search for the attacker Image copyright EPA

Meanwhile, the threat level has been temporarily raised to its highest point in the province of Utrecht.

Utrecht University has closed all of its buildings and trains are not allowed to run into the city's central station.

Paramilitary police have been sent to airports and mosques amid increased security concerns.

Utrecht is the Netherlands' fourth largest city and has a population of around 340,000.

Crime levels are low and gun killings are rare, which is the case for much of the country.
Special Police Forces inspect a tram, after the attack on a tram at the 24 Oktoberplace in Utrecht,

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[Anthea]

A man has been arrested following a shooting on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht which left three people dead, police say.

Five others were injured in the incident, and authorities say the attacker's motive remains unclear.

Gokmen Tanis, a 37-year-old Turkish man, was detained several hours after the attack. It is not yet clear where he was arrested.

[Anthea]

Dutch police arrest Turkish man
suspected of killing three on the tram

Dutch police arrested a Turkish man suspected of shooting dead three people and wounding five on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday

Police said the suspect, 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis, had been taken into custody after an hours-long manhunt and had earlier run-ins with authorities in the Netherlands.

The city was put into lockdown after the shooting, shortly after the morning rush hour, which authorities initially said was an apparent terrorist attack. Police conducted raids in several locations after issuing an image of Tanis and warning the public not to approach him.

But hours after the shooting, the gunman's motive remained unclear. A prosecutor said it could be for "family reasons" and Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting relatives of the gunman, said he had fired at a relative on the tram and had then shot at others who tried to help her.

The Turkish intelligence agency said it is investigating whether the attack was personally motivated or an act of terrorism, President Tayyip Erdogan said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dutch authorities had raised the terrorism threat in Utrecht province to its highest level, schools were told to shut their doors and paramilitary police increased security at airports, other vital infrastructure and at mosques.

The threat level was reduced by one notch to where it had been after the suspect was arrested, the National Counter-Terrorism Agency said.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte convened crisis talks immediately after the incident, which came three days after a lone gunman killed 50 people in mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.

"Our country has today been shocked by an attack in Utrecht... A terrorist motive cannot be excluded," Rutte said. "The first reports have led to disbelief and disgust. Innocent people have been struck by violence."

The mayor of Utrecht, Jan van Zanen, said three people had been killed and five injured, three of them critically.

CRIMINAL RECORD

The suspect had previously been arrested, regional prosecutor Rutger Jeuken told reporters, without giving further details.

The shooting took place in Kanaleneiland, a quiet residential district on the outskirts of Utrecht with a large immigrant population.

"It's frightening that something like this can happen so close to home," said Omar Rahhou, who said his parents lived on a street cordoned off by police. "These things normally happen far away but this brings it very close, awful."

Witness Daan Molenaar, who said he had been sitting at the front of the tram when the shooting started, told national broadcaster NOS he did not believe it was a terrorist attack.

"The first thing I thought was, this is some kind of revenge or something, or somebody who's really mad and grabbed a pistol," he said.

Utrecht, the Netherlands' fourth largest city with a population of around 340,000, is known for its picturesque canals and large student population. Gun killings are rare in Utrecht, as elsewhere in the Netherlands.

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[Anthea]

Dutch tram shooting suspect to
be charged with 'terrorist' murders

Gokmen Tanis is suspected of shooting three people dead on a tram in Utrecht on Monday

A man suspected of carrying out a tram shooting that left three people dead and seven injured in Holland is to face terror charges, Dutch prosecutors say.

Gokmen Tanis will be charged with offences including multiple murder or manslaughter with a terrorist intent following the shooting in Utrecht.

The public prosecutor's office in the central city said Tanis also faces charges of attempted murder or manslaughter and making threats with a terrorist intent.

Prosecutors said that investigations so far into Monday's shooting indicate that the shooter acted alone.

But investigations continue into whether the suspect's actions 'flowed from personal problems combined with a radicalised ideology', the statement added.

Tanis, 37, is to appear before an investigating judge on Friday. Such hearings are held behind closed doors.

It comes after police revealed they were investigating a terrorist motive for the tram attack, as they arrested a new suspect over the deadly shooting.

Authorities said they had found a suspicious letter in a getaway car used by Turkish-born main suspect Tanis, which made them 'seriously' consider terrorism might have been involved in Monday's rampage.

Armed counter-terrorism officers meanwhile arrested one new suspect, aged 40, in Utrecht who was 'suspected of being involved in the shooting incident', prosecutors said, adding that his 'role was being further investigated.'

Emergency: Dutch special police forces inspect the tram in Utrecht after a gunman opened fire in the public transport carriage and killed three people

Two other men who were arrested Monday in connection with the shooting had been released, prosecutors added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier in the day laid flowers for the victims at the scene of the attack and said he was 'still filled with horror' by the bloodshed.

'So far, a terrorist motive is seriously being taken into account. This is based on a letter found in the getaway car among other things and the nature of the facts,' Dutch police and prosecutors said in a joint statement yesterday.

Apparently ruling out reports that the shooting was due to a family dispute, the statement added: 'Our investigation has established no link between the main suspect and the victims.'

The three people who died in the shooting were a 19-year-old woman from Vianen, south of Utrecht, and two men aged 28 and 49 from Utrecht itself, the statement said.

Armed police captured Tanis after an eight-hour manhunt that virtually shut down the Netherlands' fourth largest city and saw security stepped up at airports and key sites across the country.

Police said they found a red Renault Clio that the suspect had carjacked before the attack and used as a getaway car afterwards. They had also found a firearm after his arrest.

A stream of mourners laid flowers on Tuesday at the site of the attack near the 24 Oktoberplein square.

'One of the victims was my friend's girlfriend. So coming here today was the least I could do,' Marco van Rooijen, 43, told AFP.

The attack raised security fears ahead of Wednesday's provincial elections in the Netherlands. Populist and far-right parties have seized on the attack to push their agenda for the polls but Rutte has remained restrained.

'A day later, I am still filled with horror,' Rutte told parliament.

Tributes: Students lay flowers near the site of the shooting as Dutch police and prosecutors pursue 'every lead there is'

'There are still many questions about the motive, and the police and prosecutors still have to do a lot of work. But there is no doubt that the impact was huge.'

Flags were flying half-mast on many buildings around the Netherlands and on foreign embassies.

Public transport was running again after forensic police finished their investigations at the scene and removed the tram on which the shooting erupted.

But there was also growing anger after it emerged that the suspect had only been freed from jail in a rape case two weeks ago.

Tanis was originally arrested in 2017 then released from pre-trial detention, before being taken back into custody when he breached his bail conditions, the central Netherlands district court said.

He was freed again at the start of March.

In 2014, he was also convicted of 'illegal possession of weapons' and attempted theft but acquitted of attempted manslaughter. He was also convicted in recent months for shoplifting and burglary.

Broadcaster NOS meanwhile said some of his relatives had links to fundamentalist Islamic groups, but also that he was known for unstable behaviour after divorcing his wife two years ago.

A woman involved in the rape case told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper: 'He is completely mad and uses drugs. I have previously warned the police against him. He's not a terrorist but a psychopath.'

Support for the Netherlands poured in from around the world, including the United States, the EU and Russia.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: 'America stands with you. We will continue to do all we can to help you in this terrible time of tragedy.'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's intelligence agency was 'looking into' the attack.

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