Amsterdam mayor asks for update on terror threat level after stabbing that injured 5

The Mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema, has asked the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) what the stabbing of five people near the Dam on March 27 means for the threat level in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. “We assume that we will be given an update regarding this,” Halsema said on Wednesday during the city council meeting.

The threat level in the Netherlands is at the second highest possible level(4 out of 5), which means that there is a realistic chance of a terrorist attack. “We must note that this took place, possibly with terrorist intent," said Halsema, "and that fits within the threat level that the NCTV has established.”

Halsema could not say anything else about the investigation into the stabbing incident, in which a man stabbed five seemingly randomly chosen people, because the ”information is reserved for the Public Prosecution Service.” A Ukrainian man was arrested in relation to the incident.

After she was questioned by D66, she did share that it was hard to identify the suspect of the stabbing last week, which makes it likely that he “was not known to Dutch authorities.”

All five of the victims of the stabbing survived the attack. The suspect was arrested after a British tourist tackled the man and held him until authorities arrived.