Two killed, Three hurt in Maastricht stabbings
Two people were killed and three were injured in two stabbings in Maastricht on Thursday night, the police announced. One person was arrested on suspicion of involvement in these incidents. "Investigation showed that there is no reason to assume that these incidents had a terrorist motive", the police said.
According to the police, a fight on Botsaarsstraat around 9:00 p.m. ended with a man being stabbed to death. The identity of the victim is still unclear. The suspect fled.
Ten minutes later there was another stabbing on Joseph Postnesstraat. Here a woman was killed. She also hasn't been identified. Two people were injured. A short time later, the police found a third injured person in a nearby mosque. All three wounded were taken to hospital. The police said nothing about the severity of their injuries.
Local residents told newspaper AD that the man and woman who were killed were both from Syria. According to them, the suspected perpetrator is also Syrian and a family member of the victims. The residents said that the suspect went to a local mosque with a knife in his hand, and that he recently also stabbed someone in the leg in the same mosque. The police could not confirm this.
The police closed down both crime scenes for investigation.
"Terrible news", Prime Minister Mark Rutte said about the stabbings, according to ANP. "We have to conclude that there is a lot of suffering in Maastricht", he said on Thursday night after an EU summit in Brussels. "I want to express my condolences to the families of the victims." Rutte added that the Maastricht police told him there is no reason to believe that the stabbings were terrorism related.
