(Rotterdam) Three people were killed, a 14-year-old girl, her mother and a teacher, on Thursday after a 32-year-old man shot at a house and then a hospital in Rotterdam, southwest of the Netherlands, Dutch police said.
The man, who was arrested, appears to have acted alone for reasons still unknown, police told the press.
According to police, the shooter was known to authorities for animal abuse and was a student at the hospital.
“We cannot yet say anything about the motives for these terrible acts. The investigation continues,” Attorney General Hugo Hillenaar told reporters, stressing that the suspect was cooperating with the police.
The man opened fire in a house in the Dutch port city, killing a 39-year-old woman and seriously injuring her 14-year-old daughter – who died shortly after -, explained police chief Fred Westerbeke.
He then entered a classroom at the Erasmus university hospital center, killing a 46-year-old teacher. Each time he also started fires, which were quickly extinguished, but which caused panic.
Elite police units burst into the hospital, while stretcher bearers and ward staff tried to evacuate patients in wheelchairs or on stretchers.
PHOTO BAS CZERWINSKI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Elite police units raided the Dutch city’s hospital in search of the 32-year-old suspect.
“It was a tragedy, a real tragedy,” Angeliek Vleesenbeek, a hospital patient who was having a coffee outside when police began shouting at people to go to a nearby school, told AFP. .
“I saw one of the witnesses cry”
“They told us to stay where we were and we couldn’t go out,” she said, still connected to her IV drip.
“We stayed there for a few hours with other patients, nurses and doctors,” she added. “I saw one of the witnesses crying.”
“We don’t expect that in the Netherlands,” Sem Built, a 38-year-old civil servant, told AFP.
“In the United States, yes, but here in the Netherlands? I never expected a teacher (to be killed),” added Sem Built, who witnessed the tragedy from a nearby children’s unit.
PHOTO BAS CZERWINSKI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People gather after being evacuated from the hospital by police.
Images broadcast in the press showed a ballet of helicopters, as well as snipers posted on neighboring roofs.
The man is suspected of being the sole perpetrator of the shooting and there was no second shooter, police said.
“First there was a shooting on the fourth floor. Four or five shots were fired. Then a Molotov cocktail was thrown in a classroom,” said a medical student quoted by the RTL television channel without giving his name.
“There was a lot of panic and screaming… I didn’t hear any shots, just panic,” said another eyewitness, quoted by public broadcaster NOS.
“I am sad and angry,” Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told the press, speaking of a “black day” for his city.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his “great dismay”. “My thoughts are with the victims of this attack, their loved ones and everyone who was immensely afraid,” he wrote on X, the former Twitter.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima said their hearts go out to those suffering “intense grief”.
Rotterdam is often the scene of shootings generally attributed to score-settling between rival drug gangs.
In 2019, three people were shot dead on a tram in Utrecht, sparking a massive manhunt. In 2011, the country was shocked when 24-year-old Tristan van der Lis killed six people and injured 10 others in a crowded shopping mall.