Utrecht attacker detained. Three victims, doubts about the motive

The suspect is Gokmen Tanis, 37, of Turkish origin. According to some sources, the man in the past "fought" in Chechnya and was arrested for "suspected ties" with ISIS, then released. He is currently charged in a rape trial. Condemnation and solidarity of the Turkish government.

Utrecht (AsiaNews) - The Dutch security forces have arrested a man, suspected of killing three people and injuring five others in a shooting yesterday aboard a tram, in the city of Utrecht in the heart of the Netherlands. According to investigators, the main suspect is 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis, of Turkish origin; police chief Rob van Bree declined to explain the reasons that prompted the man to strike.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry has reported that investigations are underway to see if Gokmen Tanis has in the past woven links with terrorist circles or if personal motives are behind the gesture. According to some local media the suspect has a long criminal record; among the various crimes, he would have been guilty of attempted murder in the past.

He is currently charged in a rape trial.

The Dutch police report the arrest of a second suspect in relation to the violence. However, there is no particular information on the degree of involvement of this second person whose details are not known.

Jan van Zanen, mayor of Utrecht, adds that three of the five injured people are in "critical" conditions. He speaks of a "black day for Utrecht", while the prosecutor's offices underline that the episode "appears to be due to a case of terrorism".

Following the bloody attack, the authorities closed all schools and mosques in the fourth largest city in the Netherlands. For a few hours the curfew also came into force, lifted following the arrest of the suspect.

Local authorities have opened an investigation for terrorism, also in relation to events in New Zealand. There is the possibility that the man acted as a "maverick" in response to the attack on the two mosques in Christchurch, which caused over 50 victims. Investigators do not exclude any track and other motives  behind the attack "are not excluded", even personal reasons including a "family dispute".

In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry firmly condemns the attack "regardless of who the author is and what reasons led him" to strike and at the same time express solidarity with the Dutch people and its government. Citing (behind anonymity) some relatives of Tanis, the Turkish agency Anadolu affirms that the man wanted to hit a woman present on the tram at the time of the attack for questions of a family nature.

However, news agencies report that in the past Gokmen Tanis had been in Chechnya "to fight" among the jihadist groups. "He was arrested - says a businessman to the Turkish BBC on the grounds of anonymity - for suspected links with the Islamic State a few years ago, then released".

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• turkey
• fundamentalism islam
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• Islamic state
• Christchurch