Patient stabs 3 mental institution employees, killing 1, before committing suicide

One person was killed and two others were injured in a stabbing at the CTP Veldzicht, a psychiatric detention facility in Balkbrug, Overijssel. The Dutch agency overseeing prison institutions, DJI, said that the three victims were all employees of the clinic. The perpetrator, a patient, committed suicide after the stabbings.

The two wounded employees were taken to an area hospital. Their condition was not immediately released. The incident happened at about 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the DJI said the perpetrator attacked the three employees with a knife. The patient then locked himself in a separate room and tried to start a fire there. The fire was quickly extinguished by sprinklers there.

The perpetrator then took his own life in the same room with the knife he had used to attack the employees. Investigators are still trying to determine how the incident unfolded. The DJI spokesperson was not willing to reveal any details about the identity of the patient.

"We are shocked and taken aback by this sad event,” said Wouter Boogaard, the DJI’s head of forensic care and juvenile institutions. "Our thoughts are with the relatives and families of the colleagues and the patient involved, and with the staff and patients of the CTP Veldzicht hospital."

CTP officially refers to “Center for Transcultural Psychiatry.” A portion of the clinic’s detainees are people with a psychiatric disorder.

Legal Protection Minister Franc Weerwind was also shocked by the incident at the clinic. "Acts with irreversible consequences. My condolences go out to their relatives and all DJI colleagues," the minister said on Twitter.