Rotterdam: 3 dead after twin shootings by same suspect

Three people were killed after a shooting spree in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday.

Two people were shot at a home in the port city, while a third person was shot at the Erasmus University Medical Center.

"We have been shocked by a horrible incident. Shots were fired in two different places in the city. Many people witnessed it," Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said. "Emotions in the city are very high. My condolences go out to the victims."

What do we know about the victims and suspect? 

Police said that the suspect was a 32-year-old student at the teaching university who was wearing military combat clothing and a bulletproof vest.

He has been taken into custody.

The suspect allegedly shot dead a 39-year-old woman in the first shooting incident at a residential address before setting fire to the building.

The woman's 14-year-old daughter was also wounded and later died of her injuries.

The suspect is thought to have then moved on to a classroom at the Erasmus University Hospital, where he is suspected of killing a 46-year-old lecturer at the facility.

"You don't expect this in the Netherlands," one witness in the children's ward told the AFP news agency. "In the United States yes, but here in the Netherlands? I would never have expected a teacher (to be killed)." 

Rotterdam Police Chief Fred Westerbeke said the 32-year-old in custody was believed to have carried out both shootings and to have acted alone.

They had arrested the suspect under the hospital's helipad. 

A motive for the killings was not yet clear, police said, but Westerbeke added that it is being treated as a "targeted act."

Several homes were damaged as part of the first stage of his attack, police said, one of which was the suspect's own address. They described the attacks as targeted.

The suspected shooter had a prior criminal record, for animal abuse in 2021. 

Fires at both sites, medical center reopens

The fire department said it was investigating potential arson cases after fires at both the home and the university.

Police said it was too early to comment during the press conference about media reports that the man had used Molotov cocktails or similar incendiary devices.

The Erasmus Medical Center at one point appealed on social media for people not to go to the site and to head for another medical facility instead. But by the middle of Thursday evening, the all-clear was given again and visitors were told they were welcome once more. 

Home to more than half a million people in the city and over 1 million in the wider urban area, Rotterdam hosts the busiest port in all of Europe and is the second most populous city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. In recent years the city's struggles with gang violence and with frequent imports of contraband bound either for the Netherlands or other locations in Europe have been well documented.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed "great dismay" at the shootings while King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima said their hearts went out to those suffering "intense grief." 

 zc, msh/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)