Swiss citizen injured in knife attack in Rotterdam
A Swiss national was injured in a knife attack that left one person dead on Thursday evening in Rotterdam, Dutch police reported on Friday.
The suspect who was arrested is believed to have had a “terrorist motive”, the Dutch public prosecutor stated.
“The public prosecution currently suspects the 22-year-old man from Amersfoort of murder and attempted murder with a terrorist motive,” it said in a statement. The suspect was arrested following the attack and was hospitalised with serious injuries.
+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The suspect fatally wounded a 32-year-old man from Rotterdam shortly after 8pm in the Erasmus Bridge area, police confirmed. He also slightly injured a Swiss citizen, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) later reported to the Keystone-SDA news agency. Earlier, police had stated that the injuries were serious.
He has “left the hospital”, the prosecutor also confirmed on Friday afternoon. The Swiss embassy in The Hague is in contact with him.
Random stabbings in Rotterdam
“Preliminary investigations suggest that the suspect may be motivated by ideological reasons,” it added. “The investigation is ongoing, and other motives for the attack cannot be ruled out,” it cautioned.
Witnesses reported that the young man attacked passers-by with “two large knives” near the modern Erasmus Bridge, an area popular for its cafés and bars, as well as for sports training.
The national news agency ANP cited witnesses who claimed that the young man appeared to have attacked people at random shortly after 8pm.
Translated from French by DeepL/sp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
More
Switzerland now has a Professor of Gender Medicine. She’s here to stay.
More
European nations snub Swiss-made weapons over Ukraine restrictions
More
Swiss reject biodiversity and pension reform proposals
More
Construction starts on first large-scale solar park in Swiss Alps
More
Six things you need to know about Pavel Durov and Telegram
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.