Netherlands: Three killed in targeted shooting rampage in Rotterdam

Netherlands` special intervention police officers gather at the Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC) in Rotterdam on September 28, 2023, which was cordoned off after two reported shooting incidents. AFP

Police in the Netherlands said three people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed by a student who opened fire at a hospital and a flat in Rotterdam.

A 32-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after the shootings, which began in a flat and continued in a classroom of the nearby Erasmus medical centre, The Guardian reported. The lone gunman also started fires at both locations, police said.

Associated Press reported that the gunman was wearing a bulletproof vest. The shooting sent patients and medics fleeing the Erasmus Medical Centre in downtown Rotterdam, including some who were wheeled out of the building in beds. Others barricaded themselves into rooms and stuck hand-written signs to windows to show their location.

Police Chief Fred Westerbeke told reporters that the shooter was a 32-year-old student from Rotterdam. He was arrested at the hospital carrying a firearm. His identity was not released, and the motive for the shootings was still under investigation.

He first shot and killed a 39-year-old woman and seriously injured her 14-year-old daughter at an apartment close to where the suspect lived, Police Chief Fred Westerbeke said. Police said the girl later died of her injuries.

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The shooter then went to the nearby Erasmus Medical Centre where he shot and killed a 46-year-old man, a teacher at the academic hospital, the police chief added. He also started fires at the scenes of both shootings.

The student was a self-professed alcoholic who had disturbing Nazi and far-right content on his phone, according to a series of disturbing social media posts, UK's daily mail reported.

The 32-year-old suspect, who has been named in Dutch media as Fouad L., was arrested by armed police after he allegedly killed a mother and a daughter in their own home and set it on fire before travelling to the nearby Erasmus medical university where he shot dead a 43-year-old professor.

Fouad L., who is understood to be a former student at Erasmus, also appeared to be an avid 4Chan user who spoke about his deeply troubled past which included a conviction for abusing his rabbit while drunk according to Dutch media.