FIVE people including two American tourists were stabbed during the horrific Amsterdam knife rampage, cops have said.
Horrified witnesses revealed they heard piercing screams in Thursday’s frenzied attack that took place near Dam Square, which is at the heart of the Dutch capital.
The victims include a 67-year-old American woman and a 69-year-old American man, a 26-year-old Polish man, a 73-year-old woman from Belgium and a 19-year-old woman from Amsterdam.
A trauma team was deployed via helicopter, which landed directly on the iconic Dam Square — prompting a large-scale cordon around the area.
The Amsterdam police department said that one suspect has since been arrested after a hero bystander overpowered him.
They added that he was taken to the hospital as his leg was injured.
According to a worker at the local De 3 Fleschjes bar, diners witnessed an older woman and a young girl being stabbed in the back before falling to the ground.
One shopkeeper told local newspaper Parool: “I heard a knock and then I saw a girl had been stabbed in the back and a boy ran off.”
Another witness told De Telegraaf they suddenly heard an “icy scream” before panic broke out.
A third person added she heard a lot of shouting and screaming as people were seen running on the streets.
Cops said in a statement: “A suspect was overpowered with the help of a citizen. As his leg was injured, he was taken to a hospital.”
However, they are yet to confirm the motive behind the attack.
Emergency services rushed to the scene shortly after 3.20pm local time, following reports of a knife attack.
Two ambulances were initially dispatched, with a further three called just ten minutes later as the situation escalated.
The Amsterdam Police Unit said in a statement: “We are present at the Sint Nicolaasstraat near the Dam after a report of a stabbing incident with injuries.
“There is therefore a cordon, also on the Dam. More information will follow.”
A meeting at Amsterdam’s Stopera building was interrupted, and mayor Femke Halsema was pulled out of a council meeting when news of the attack broke.
Police have sealed off the area as they continue their investigation, urging anyone with footage of the incident to come forward and upload it on their website.
It comes after a Syrian asylum seeker was charged with murder after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death in a knife rampage in Austria.
Officials say the 23-year-old was motivated by “Islamic terrorism” before his alleged role in the bloodbath attack that left five others injured.
Three of the people caught up in the frenzied assault in the town of Villach were rushed to hospital in a critical condition last month.
All five survivors are aged between 15 and 36 with one being Turkish and the others Austrian citizens, police spokesman Rainer Dionisio said at the time.
Terrified witnesses reported hearing the alleged knifeman shout “Allahu Akbar” before lunging at his first victim.
Investigators also discovered an IS flag inside the suspect’s apartment, according to state police chief Michaela Kohlweiss.
She confirmed that cops also believe the man swore allegiance to the terror regime.
In Munich, a mum and her child tragically died from serious injuries after a suspected Islamist terrorist rammed his Mini Cooper into a crowd.
The woman, 37, and her two-year-old daughter were among the 39 injured in the “shocking attack” said to be carried out by a rejected Afghan asylum seeker.
The Mini Cooper is said to have “sped up” and ploughed into the back of around 1,500 Verdi demonstrators – a Berlin-based German trade union – on Seidlstrasse in Munich.
The suspected attack came just hours before the Munich Security Conference that started last month, with US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arriving at the summit to speak.
Police said the suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who, the region’s interior minister added, was known to cops in relation to drug and theft incidents.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/13883051/amsterdam-knife-rampage-dam-square/
