Dutch police yesterday questioned the Turkish-born suspect in a deadly shooting on a tram in the city of Utrecht and two other people arrested in connection with the rampage.
Gokmen Tanis, 37, was arrested after a massive eight-hour manhunt on Monday following the shooting in which three people were killed and five injured.
The motive remains unknown, with prosecutors saying they were still investigating a possible terrorist link because of evidence found in the main suspect’s car, including a letter, but could not exclude that it might have been a family dispute.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Utrecht police late on Monday said that they had arrested two other men in connection with the attack, but gave no further details about them.
“As for the three suspects detained in connection with the shooting incident in 24 Oktoberplein, Utrecht, these three people are still being held and are still suspicious,” Utrecht police said on Twitter yesterday.
The police statement came after the mayor of Utrecht told Dutch radio the two other men had been freed.
Mourners yesterday began to lay flowers at the site of the attack near the 24 Oktoberplein square in memory of the victims, who have not yet been formally identified.
Flags were flying half-mast on many buildings around the nation. Public transport was running again after forensic police finished their investigations at the scene and removed the tram on which the shooting erupted.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was chairing a Cabinet meeting on the attack, which has raised security fears a day before provincial elections in the Netherlands.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country’s intelligence agency was “looking into the matter” and raised the possibility that it was a family dispute.
“Some say it is a family matter, some say it is a terror attack... Our intelligence agency is looking into the matter. I haven’t talked to our intelligence chief yet,” Erdogan told Ulke TV.
Dutch media have reported that the suspect had a long criminal background and was only released from jail two weeks ago on a number of charges.
Broadcaster NOS reported that some members of his families had links to fundamentalist Muslim groups, but also that he was known for unstable behavior after divorcing his wife two years ago.
Police and witnesses said that gunfire broke out on the tram on Monday morning, sending people fleeing and triggering a huge police response.
Mosques and schools were closed across the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city following the bloodshed, before heavily armed officers surrounded a building and arrested Tanis.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was