Dutch tram shooting suspect arrested after three killed

By MiNDFOOD

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

A gunman who killed three people and wounded five others on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday has been caught.

Dutch authorities have downgraded the terror threat level for the province of Utrecht to level 4 following the arrest of a man suspected of killing three people and wounding five others in a tram shooting on Monday.

Utrecht’s mayor has said that the shooting appeared to be a terror attack, touching off a manhunt that saw heavily armed officers with dogs zero in on an apartment building close to the shooting.

Turkish-born Gökmen Tanis, 37, was detained on a street in the north of the city several hours after the shooting, which happened at 10.45am local time on the central 24 Oktoberplein junction.

Police is seen after a shooting in Utrecht, Netherlands, March 18, 2019. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

A police spokesman, Bernhard Jens, had earlier said the attack could be a domestic dispute. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, citing relatives of the suspect’s family, said Tanis had fired at a woman for “family reasons” then shot at others who tried to help her.

This act of terror comes just days after the Christchurch mosque shootings which left 50 people dead. Utrecht, the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city, spent much of the day in lockdown and authorities asked residents to stay at home. 

The Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima said they feel “intensely” for the victims of the tram shooting and condemned the violence as “absolutely unacceptable.”

“Let us stand together for a community in which people feel safe and in which the freedom and tolerance are of utmost importance,” they said in a statement.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the tram attack in Utrecht and expressed condolences for the victims.

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