Dutch prosecutors say man arrested after fatal stabbing is suspected of a terrorist motive

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A 22-year-old man arrested after a fatal stabbing in Rotterdam that left one person dead and another seriously wounded is suspected of murder and attempted murder with terrorist intent, prosecutors said Friday.

The Rotterdam Public Prosecution Service said in a statement that investigations into the suspect, whose identity has not been released, uncovered “indications that the suspect may be ideologically driven. For example, the suspect shouted Allahu akbar a number of times during the commission of the crimes.”

The stabbing Thursday night in central Rotterdam left a 32-year-old man from Rotterdam dead and a 33-year-old man from Switzerland wounded. Prosecutors say the Swiss man has left hospital after treatment. They did not elaborate on his injuries.

The suspect, who lives in the central city of Amersfoort, has previous convictions for violent crimes, prosecutors said in a statement. He will be arraigned on Monday at a court in The Hague.

They stressed that their investigation is “still in full swing and that other motives are also explicitly not ruled out.”

The Dutch government’s terror threat level is currently set at four out of a possible five, meaning that “there is a realistic possibility that an attack will take place in the Netherlands,” the national counterterrorism coordinator said in a statement in early August.

A sports instructor, Reniël Renato David Litecia, helped end the attack.

He said he initially thought a fight had broken out near the landmark Erasmus Bridge, “but when I started running in that direction I saw that it wasn’t a fight. It was a man with two long knives who was stabbing another young guy and when I started shouting he turned around and started approaching everyone who was around him.”

Police said the assailant is believed to have attacked one person in an underground parking lot and then a second victim near a busy terrace near one end of the bridge that spans the New Maas river, which runs through Rotterdam.

The attack in Rotterdam comes weeks after a fatal terror attack in neighboring Germany.

Late last month a knife attack at a festival in the German city of Solingen left three dead and eight wounded. Police detained a Syrian man on suspicion of murder and membership of a terrorist organization. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in Germany, without providing evidence.

Mike Corder, The Associated Press