The three people injured in the stabbing spree on the Hague’s busy shopping street are all minors, the police have said. They haven’t confirmed or denied the suspect’s link to terrorism, while media reports claimed there is none.
“All three victims of the stabbing at Grote Marktstraat are minors. We are in contact with their families,” the Hague police have tweeted, without elaborating.
All three victims of the stabbing at #GroteMarktstraat are minors. We are in contact with their families.
The latest statements suggest that the Dutch police are still looking for the suspect, described as a man in his late forties, and described as someone of North African or Middle Eastern descent.
No information on the suspect’s motive has been shared.
However, the Dutch national broadcaster NOS has claimed that “at this moment there is no indication of a terrorist motive,” citing its own sources.
Witness accounts and footage from the Hague’s commercial district reveal scenes of panic, as people fled down the street. Several clips have been shot by a 16-year-old Emma Evers, who is apparently unrelated to the injured minors.
“I took this video, when I realized something was happening i started running and I was in panic because I couldn’t find my mom,” Evers tweeted in comments to her videos, adding that they reunited and ran inside a the shopping center thereafter.
Chaos in the old European city unfolded just hours after another high-profile stabbing hit the British capital of London, where a man – who had allegedly been in jail for terrorism-related offenses – killed two people and injured three more on central London Bridge.
The stabber was shot dead by police on the scene, after being wrestled down by members of the public.
