The world has not yet recovered fro gruesome killings in New Zealand yet another similar incident occurs in Netherlands.
Multiple people were injured in a shooting Monday on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht, authorities said, an attack they said could be connected to terrorism.
Counter-terrorism authorities in the Netherlands raised the terror threat level to five, the maximum, until evening in the province containing the city and said that the attacker was still on the run.
There appeared to be some confusion about the extent of the incident, with the Dutch national coordinator for counter-terrorism and security, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, telling reporters that there had been multiple shootings around Utrecht, while a police spokesman told local media that there had only been a single barrage at the tram.
Police did not immediately release details of the number of injured or saw whether there were fatalities. But photographs from the scene of the incident showed at least one body covered in a white sheet next to the halted tram.
The shooting, three days after an attack on mosques in New Zealand killed 50 worshipers and left 40 wounded, set off alarms in Europe, and Dutch authorities unleashed a massive emergency response even as the extent of the attack and its motivations remained unclear.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was “very concerned,” cutting short his ordinary meetings to address the crisis response.
“We can’t rule out terror,” Aalbersberg told reporters. He said top Dutch officials were meeting to try to determine the motivations behind the incident. “There is a big operation to catch the suspect,” he said.
Local media reported that ambulances rushed to the area around the incident, near the 24 Oktoberplein, a busy intersection in southwest Utrecht. Authorities also closed off a lane of a busy highway to make it easier for emergency vehicles to speed in.
Authorities said the attack took place around 10:45 a.m.
The shooting was “a horrible and shocking incident in which victims have fallen,” Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen said in a statement. City authorities told residents to stay inside while the shooter or shooters were on the loose.
One witness quoted by the NRC newspaper said a man got up on the tram and started shooting around him with a “big pistol.”
“He shot around him, but seemed to be aiming at people sitting on the benches. Everybody ducked away,” said the witness, who NRC said asked to remain anonymous. “The conductor did not open the doors immediately. Two boys next to me kicked in a window, so I jumped outside. Several people did that.”
Authorities, uncertain about the motive for the attack and nervous that the perpetrator or perpetrators were still on the loose, increased security across the country.
In Rotterdam, police said they were increasing security at mosques and at train stations. In the Dutch capital, The Hague, the military police who patrol government buildings were carrying their rifles at the ready, a different posture than normal, according to Dutch media.
All mosques in Utrecht were closed after the incident, according to a spokesman for the Ulu Mosque, Utrecht’s biggest, quoted by the ANP news agency.