Turkish terror suspect in Dutch tram shooting arrested, 3 confirmed dead

The Utrecht police chief announced that the primary suspect in the deadly tram shooting on Monday was arrested.

By Associated Press

The Dutch justice minister says the attacker in the deadly tram shooting in Utrecht “was known” to authorities.

Ferd Grapperhaus was speaking shortly after the Utrecht police chief announced that the gunman was detained.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, speaking at the same news conference, said some of the wounded “are still in critical condition.”

Rutte said “three people are dead, three people are fighting for their lives. There was an attack today in the Netherlands — if it had terror motives, that is being investigated. But it was very serious. The world shares our grief.”

Following the shooting, Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen announced, “We cannot exclude, even stronger, we assume a terror motive.”

The attack killed at least three people and wounded five others.

Dutch authorities reduced the threat level in the central city of Utrecht back to four out of five following the arrest of the suspect.

The country’s counterterror coordinator announced the scaling down of the threat level in a tweet Monday evening. He says the decision was prompted by “the arrest of the main suspect of the shooting.”

Prior to the arrest, Utrecht police released a photo of a 37-year-old man born in Turkey who they said was “associated with the incident.” The photo identified him as Gokmen Tanis.

Mehmet Tanis, his father who lives in Turkey’s central Kayseri province, told the Demiroren news agency that he hadn’t spoken to his son in 11 years. He says “if he did it, he should pay the penalty.”