“Confused” men appear to be a new threat to public life in Europe. The 29-year-old man who was arrested for the stabbing incident in the Amsterdam neighbourhood of De Pijp, was not known to the police or the judiciary, the police said on Saturday after an initial investigation. While the mainstream media described the suspect’s behaviour, they took care not to divulge his ethnicity or the name of the restaurant where the attacks took place.
On Friday evening, five people were stabbed in and near the Ferdinand Bolstraat in Amsterdam. The killing spree started at the Hayran, a Turkish restaurant, FWM learned. One of the victims died at the scene – a 64-year-old man from Amsterdam. The other victims are between 21 and 28 years old and are in hospital. Three of them come from Amsterdam, one from Haarlem. Investigations so far show that the attack was a random act, police said.
The police assume that one person was responsible for the stabbing. There are no indications of a terrorist motive according to investigators. The arrested man from Amstelveen was interrogated on Saturday and the home of the suspect in Amstelveen was searched last night. Data devices and a car were confiscated.
Far-left Mayor Femke Halsema visited the neighbourhood where the stabbing took place on Saturday and spoke with local residents there. “It’s a horrible event. That makes a big impression on the people,” Halsema told the NOS. “I am very shocked. Precisely because this is such a peaceful neighbourhood. Something like that is not expected here.”
But Islam critic and filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot to death only a few hundred metres from the “peaceful” neighbourhood in broad daylight. Van Gogh, was killed by a 26-year-old Dutch-born Muslim and since then a series of public figures have been threatened with death by Islamic extremists. The descendant of Vincent van Gogh’s brother was shot and then stabbed with a knife, pinning two notes to his body, to serve as a warning to critics.
Local residents witnessed the terrible consequences of the stabbing last night. A local resident (24 years old, does not want to be mentioned by name) unsuspectingly came out of the metro station on Friday evening when a bleeding girl was carried into an ambulance in front of him. “There were two or three ambulances, but within five minutes police tape cordoned off the site and police cars were pulling up from all sides, I think twenty. There was also someone with an insulation blanket at the traffic light at the bookshop, who was also taken away.”
After taking a look, he decided to rush home. He saw someone else lying at the De Schelde night shop near Hotel Okura. “Then I quickly got away. Really bizarre.”
According to one witness, a person was seen lying lifeless in front of the HayranTurkish restaurant. “Police officers took turns with an ambulance nurse to administer CPR. They did this for half an hour, while more and more ambulances, police and even trauma helicopters arrived. After half an hour they stopped and put a white blanket over the victim. Then I knew the person had died.”