Rotterdam mayor: Be alert to threats, but not paranoid

It is important that residents be alert to threats, but do not become paranoid, Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said at a meeting for residents of Rotterdam-West on Tuesday evening. The meeting was arranged to inform residents on the state of affairs following the arrest of 4 terrorist suspects in the neighborhood on Sunday. "Use your eyes and your ears, and also your gut feeling. That is sometimes an important indicator, but let's not get paranoid", Aboutaleb said, according to Metro. "The fact that this happened does not mean that more is going on." About a hundred people showed up at the meeting. According to the mayor, the residents are not afraid, but they are troubled. He repeated again that there is no evidence of an actual attack planned for Rotterdam. One local resident is satisfied with the meeting. "We got more clarity on what happened", he said to Metro. "The people particularly wanted to know if the neighborhood is safe. The mayor knew what he was talking about." On Sunday the police arrested four suspected terrorists in Rotterdam-West, based on information from France. One of them, Frenchman Anis B., is said to have ties to the Zerkani network - an international terrorist network believed to have played a key role in the terrorist attacks in both Brussels and Paris. He will be extradited to France as soon as possible. The other thee suspects, all Algerian men, are in the custody of the Dutch police. Their connection with Anis B. is being investigated. On Tuesday night the Rotterdam police raided another address in the city as part of this investigation. They searched for weapons and explosives, but none were found. No one was arrested.