THE man suspected of shooting three people dead and injuring five others on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday morning has been arrested, local police said. The arrest coincided with the conclusion of a joint press conference held by Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen, the public prosecutor and the police, who were just describing the continuing hunt for the suspect. Prior to the arrest, Utrecht police described the suspect as Turkey-born, 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis. “Finding the suspect is our top priority,” said van Zanen. “It is not over yet.” At that point, Rob van Bree, head of operations of the Central Netherlands Police, received a note from a colleague. “We just heard that the suspect is arrested,” van Bree announced. The suspect was arrested at a house in Utrecht’s Oudenoord Street. Following the arrest, the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) reduced the threat level for the province of Utrecht from the maximum possible 5 to 4, and for the Netherlands as a whole to 4. “There are still many questions and rumors,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after the arrest in The Hague. “It is still not clear what the motives were. We can still not exclude terrorism. We don’t know yet,” he said. (SD-Agencies) |