Dutch man, 50, held in car explosion at crowded Dam Square in Amsterdam

Police in the Netherlands arrested a 50-year-old Dutch man in connection with the suspected intentional car explosion at Dam Square in Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon. He was the driver of the vehicle, and was taken into custody at the hospital where he was being treated for his injuries. Several videos captured at the scene showed what happened just after 1:15 p.m. NL Times will not show these videos due to their graphic nature.

Both the suspect and the vehicle caught on fire, but there were no other injuries reported. Police did not disclose the man’s place of residence, saying only that he lives in the province of Noord-Holland. No details have been released about a possible motive, but he is suspected of purposefully causing the explosion.

Video from the scene showed the small red car driving northbound on Damrak towards Central Station when it suddenly veered to the right at a slow speed and moved towards the National Monument steps, where several hundred people were gathered in the warm afternoon sun. An explosion then happened inside the vehicle cabin about 15 seconds later.

People quickly sprinted away from the vehicle, including numerous walking tour groups. Less than 15 seconds after the explosion, an individual emerged from out of the driver's door engulfed in flames. He rolled around several times on the cobblestone ground, and then remained motionless for a few moments before laboriously walking around while holding his abdomen.

One police officer could be seen pointing a taser at the man, who was still on fire. Another was yelling at the man and pointing towards the ground. None of the officers responding approached the individual to try and put out the flames until one arrived with a fire extinguisher he removed from the back of his squad car.

“At that moment, quite a few people were close to the vehicle,” the police said on social media. A police officer had tailed the red car to the monument, and began evacuating the area shortly after the explosion. Five other police vehicles were at the scene about a minute after the blast.

Local street performer Shadi the Pigeon Man told ANP that initially he heard a "boom" and thought people were celebrating. He was running his act for a crowd at the time, just opposite the Damrak from the monument, when the dozens of pigeons gathered around him flew off into the air.

People near the steps of the monument were running away, he said. “Then I ran away too.”