A ‘Neo-Nazi’ gunman killed three people, including a 14-year-old girl, after rampaging through an apartment and hospital in the Netherlands.
The suspected shooter, who was seized alive by police after the bloody rampage on Thursday, has been named by Dutch media as a 32-year-old student called Fouad L.
The killing spree was stopped, but only after the gunman allegedly killed a 39-year-old mother and her teenage daughter in their own home before setting it ablaze.
He is then said to have headed to Erasmus Medical University were a 43-year-old professor was shot dead. The professor killed has been named as Jurgen Damen. It’s reported the shooter had been arguing with academics at the teaching hospital.
Dutch newspaper AD reports Prof Damen began his career as a GP in Rotterdam in 2010. It said he had worked at Erasmus since 2013.
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Rotterdam GP Matthijs van der Poel told the newspaper: “It’s unbelievable. Jurgen was closely involved in this. I know him well. This is so awful.”
A security guard at the hospital told the BBC the shooter had gained access not through the main he entrance, he said: “It was terrible, terrible.”
Local media reported the arrested man was a former student at Erasmus who was prolific on the social messaging site 4chan speaking about a troubled past, alcoholism and a conviction for abusing a pet rabbit.
At a news briefing Rotterdam police officers said the gunman was known to them and had been convicted of animal cruelty two years ago. He was also described as having Neo-Nazi beliefs in some reports.
The shootings sent patients and medics fleeing the Erasmus Medical University in the port city of Rotterdam, including some who were wheeled out of the building in beds.
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Others barricaded themselves into rooms and stuck hand-written signs to windows to show their location.
Pictures show the gunman being arrested at the hospital. The motive for the shootings was still under investigation although Dutch media reported he had been in dispute with academics at the Erasmus building.
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 after heart-breaking scenes unfolded outside the home as medics tried to save her life.
The shooter then went to the nearby Erasmus Medical University where he shot and killed a 43-year-old man, a teacher at the academic hospital, police said. He also started fires at the scenes of both shootings.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima expressed their sympathy on social media. “Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the victims of the violence this afternoon in Rotterdam,” the royal pair wrote. “We also think of everybody who lived in fear during these terrible actions,” they added.
The Erasmus Medical Centre appealed on social media for people not to go to the hospital, but later said it was reopening. It said that all appointments scheduled for Friday would go ahead as planned.
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