Arrest made in stabbings of three young women on Utrecht street

The police arrested a 37-year-old man from Utrecht for possible involvement in three stabbing incidents in less than a week, all targeting young women. Investigators tracked down the suspect partly thanks to a tip from a citizen and arrested him at 00:15 a.m. on Friday, the police said.

All three stabbings happened around Balijelaan. On the evening of September 27, a 23-year-old woman was pulled from her bicycle and stabbed. The same happened to another 23-year-old woman on September 30, near the intersection with Croeselaan. And during the early hours of October 3, a 20-year-old woman got stabbed in the face while sitting on the back of a friend’s bicycle.

The suspect is in custody for questioning, the police said.

On Wednesday evening, Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijksma, the police, and the local public prosecutor held a meeting for locals to answer their questions about the stabbings as much as they could without hindering the investigation. According to RTV Utrecht, dozens of locals, mainly younger women, attended.

Dijksma was mainly at the meeting to speak to locals one-on-one, but she did take a moment to tell RTV Utrecht that she’s been involved with the authorities' approach since the first attack. “But the problem is, I can’t really say anything about it because you don’t want to play into people’s hands,” she said. “We have taken a series of visible and invisible measures to keep our finger on the pulse.”