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An armed man opened fire in two different buildings, a house in Heiman Dullaertplein, in the Delfshaventra district and a classroom of a university clinic, the Rotterdam Medical Center, causing at least two deaths and three injuries. Police sources say so. The alarm was raised around 2.30pm local time. Sirens rang out across the city, while a police helicopter hovered over the city for hours.
Parts of the university hospital were evacuated, with doctors, patients and nurses forced out, as armed security forces surrounded the building. Some patients were wheeled out on a stretcher or in a wheelchair. A 32-year-old suspect, dressed in military clothing, was arrested; according to the police there were no other perpetrators involved. Fires broke out in both places where the shootings occurred.
Videos posted online showed police ordering students to run out of buildings as heavily armed squads arrived at the scene.
Two hours later police said there had been several deaths and that the victims’ families had been informed.
Dark motive
A 14-year-old girl is fighting between life and death after the shooting. The teenager’s 39-year-old mother was instead killed. As reported by the ANP agency, the man then went to the classroom of the Erasmus Medical Center where he “pointed the weapon at a 46-year-old man, who was a teacher at the EMC. This man unfortunately died from his injuries.” Chief Prosecutor Hugo Hillenaar said this. Subsequently, the suspect set fire in the hospital and was arrested. According to Hillenaar, the man is currently being questioned and is cooperating with the investigation. “We cannot say anything at the moment about the motive for this terrible act. The investigations are still in full swing,” the chief prosecutor said, adding that the suspect lives nearby. Rotterdam police chief Fred Westerbeke said a targeted operation was being considered.