[1/5]Ambulances after Dutch police arrest a suspect following a shooting in Rotterdam, Netherlands on September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Woo Obtaining licensing rights
ROTTERDAM (Reuters) – A gunman killed a teacher and a local woman after opening fire in a classroom on the campus of a university hospital in Rotterdam and a nearby house on Thursday, Dutch police said.
Police said in a televised press conference that the 32-year-old suspect, a university student, shot a 39-year-old woman who lived in his neighborhood and seriously wounded her 14-year-old daughter.
After setting fire to the woman’s house, the gunman went to the University Hospital of the Rotterdam Medical Center, where he entered a classroom and shot a 46-year-old teacher dead.
The man was arrested near the hospital, where he also started the fire. His motive was unknown.
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Abu Taleb said: “We are shocked by this horrific incident. Shots were fired in two different places in the city. Many people witnessed it.” “Emotions in the city are very high. My condolences to the victims.”
“The suspect was known to law enforcement authorities, and in 2021 he was tried and convicted for animal cruelty,” said Hugo Hellenaar, Rotterdam’s public prosecutor.
Videos posted online showed police ordering the students, some wearing medical gowns, to run outside as heavily armed arrest teams arrived at the scene. One video showed a man handcuffed and wearing what appeared to be camouflage pants.
Police said there were no signs of a second shooter.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Charlotte van Campenhout, Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch – Prepared by Mohammed for the Arabic Bulletin) Editing by Peter Graff, Hugh Lawson and Alexandra Hudson
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