Dutch police investigating a terror threat that prompted the cancelation of a concert by a US rock band in Rotterdam arrested a 22-year-old man early yesterday.
Police spokesman Roland Ekkers told reporters that the man was detained by a team in the province of Brabant, a sprawling region south of Rotterdam. The exact location was not immediately released.
The Los Angeles band Allah-Las on Wednesday night called off its concert after Spanish authorities tipped Dutch police about a possible threat to the show.
Photo: AFP
The suspect was “in custody and will be questioned about the threat in Rotterdam,” police said in a statement, adding that they conducted a thorough search of his home.
Dutch police do not generally release identities or other details of suspects in criminal investigations.
Meanwhile, the driver of a Spain-registered white van carrying a number of gas canisters that was stopped on Wednesday night close to the Maassilo concert venue is unlikely to be a suspect in the threat probe, police said.
In a statement, police said that the man, who was detained soon after the concert was called off, was possibly drunk and was to be questioned later yesterday.
Explosives experts checked his van and found nothing suspicious beyond the gas canisters, the police statement said.
A search of the man’s home “uncovered no link with the terror threat ... at the Maassilo,” police said. “The man, a repair man, had an explanation for the gas canisters that will be investigated today.”
Dutch Counterterror Coordinator Dick Schoof commended the police action on Twitter, saying it was “alert, appropriate for the current threat level.”
It was not clear what the nature of the threat to the concert was or if the band’s name played any role in the threat.
In an interview with the Guardian last year, band members said they chose the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and did not realize it might cause offense.
“We get e-mails from Muslims, here in the US and around the world, saying they’re offended, but that absolutely wasn’t our intention,” lead singer Miles Michaud told the newspaper. “We e-mail back and explain why we chose the name and mainly they understand.”
According to their Web site, the band was scheduled to play in Warsaw yesterday night.
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