By The police in the Netherlands said people were killed in two shootings at a house and a university medical center in the port city of Rotterdam on Thursday, but the exact death toll was not immediately clear.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the Rotterdam police said that they had arrested a 32-year-old suspect and were investigating if he was linked to the shootings. According to local news reports, he was detained on the helipad of the university.
Much remained unclear, including a motive and the name of the suspect. But the authorities said they had received an initial report of gunfire at 2.25 p.m. local time on Thursday. The shootings took place at an apartment and a classroom at Erasmus Medical Center, a prominent university medical school, in Rotterdam, the police said.
They identified a suspect in his mid-20s, and warned on the X platform that he had been seen wearing combat clothes, carrying a backpack and headphones, and using a handgun.
He “may be on his way on a motorcycle,” the police said. Erasmus Medical Center also alerted people not to go to the facility because of “various incidents.”
Gun violence is rare in the Netherlands, but in 2019 the country was shaken by a deadly shooting on a tram in the city of Utrecht that killed at least three people and injured seven others.
And this year, Rotterdam has been rocked by small explosions at homes and businesses blamed on rival gangs.
Claire Moses contributed reporting.
