Three killed, several injured in Netherlands' shooting
A shooting on a tram in the city of Utrecht in Netherlands has left at least three persons dead and nine others injured, with police saying the incident may have had a “terrorist motive.”
At this stage, we can confirm three deaths and nine wounded, three of them seriously," Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen said in a video statement on Twitter.
Police say the shooting occurred in Oktoberplein district in the central part of Utrecht on Monday and that the suspected gunman is at large.
Following the incident, Dutch authorities put a square around The October 21st square, a tram station outside downtown Utrecht, on lockdown and cordoned off the area and adjacent streets.
Schools have been ordered to shut their doors and paramilitary police increased security at airports and other vital infrastructure, according to media reports.
Police said they were looking for a 37-year-old Turkish man in connection with the shooting.
"The police ask you to watch out for 37-year-old Gokman Tanis (born in Turkey) in connection with this morning's incident," a police statement said.
Local media quoted an eyewitness as saying that he had seen a woman lying on the ground amid some kind of confrontation.
“A man started shooting wildly," the eyewitness said, adding that several men ran away from the scene.
It is still unclear if the shooter acted alone or had accomplices, with police saying they were looking at all plausible motives for the shooting.
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