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Agence France-Presse

Dutch officials on Saturday said a knife-wielding attacker who wounded two US citizens at Amsterdam Central Station a day before “had a terrorist motive”.
“Following an initial statement by the suspect it has emerged that the man had a terrorist motive,” Amsterdam City Hall said in a statement after police had questioned the suspect.
US ambassador Pete Hoekstra earlier confirmed both the victims, who were rushed to hospital after Friday’s attack, were American citizens. The pair are in a satisfactory condition, officials said.

Panic broke out at the Dutch capital’s main station soon after midday Friday when the suspect stabbed two bystanders before he was shot and wounded by officers.
Police later identified the man as a 19-year-old Afghan with a German residency permit. His name was released by Dutch authorities as “Jawed S.”.
Amsterdam City Hall said the suspect was being held in hospital under police guard and would briefly appear in court Monday behind closed doors.
Dutch authorities said they were in close contact with their German counterparts who raided the suspect’s home on Saturday at an unknown location in Germany.
Netherlands keen on belt and road strategy – if China is willing to open up
“Among other things, several data carriers have been confiscated and are being investigated,” they said.
Initial investigations also indicated the man had not specifically targeted the Americans – suggesting a random attack.
Amsterdam police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek had already told AFP late Friday that authorities were “seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive”.
Further details of the two Americans injured were not immediately known, although one was reported to be a young man.
Hoekstra said the US is ready to “assist as appropriate, with our main priority as always being the safety and well-being of US citizens in the country”.

The attack comes a day after an announcement by Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders that he was cancelling moves to stage a cartoon competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad, a plan that had angered many Muslims.
Witnesses described scenes of panic on Friday as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus soon after midday.
One witness said he saw a young man “stumble” into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand.
“Soon afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong,” Richard Snelders told the ANP news agency. A while later, he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said.
“The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it’s a terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic,” Snelders said.
Police declined to comment when asked whether there was a possible link between Friday’s attack and the cartoon competition.

Wilders’ controversial announcement has seen angry protests, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement, calling on Muslims to attack Dutch troops and calling Wilders’ plan “a hostile act by this country (the Netherlands) against all Muslims”.
Earlier this week, police arrested another man – believed to be Pakistani – at The Hague’s Central Station after he posted a film on Facebook saying he was planning to assassinate the blond-haired Wilders, well known for his virulent anti-Islamic views.

Wilders on Thursday said he was nixing plans to stage the competition to “avoid the risk of making people victims of Islamist violence”.
The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years.
But amid a number of scares and reports that people linked to some of those attacks may have crossed briefly into the country, top Dutch security and intelligence officials have stressed that the threat level is substantial.
In the most serious incident involving a terror attack, outspoken Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network.
Around 250,000 people travel through Central Station every day, according to statistics provided by the Amsterdam.info online travel guide.


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Crime

Two US citizens hurt in Dutch ‘terrorist’ knife attack

Police declined to comment whether there was a link between Friday’s attack and a competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad

(180831) -- AMSTERDAM, Aug. 31, 2018 (Xinhua) -- Police officers work at Amsterdam's Central Station, the Netherlands, on Aug. 31, 2018. Two people were injured in a stabbing incident at Amsterdam's Central Station on Friday, according to Dutch television NOS. (Xinhua/Evert Elzinga) (jmmn)

FILE PHOTO: Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders appears in court for his appeal against a conviction for inciting discrimination accusing prosecutors of trying to destroy his right to free speech, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 17, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Walschaerts/File Photo

Police officers at Amsterdam's Central Station, the Netherlands, where two people were injured in a stabbing incident on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

Netherlands keen on Chinese investment but wants belt and road to benefit foreign companies

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, seen here at the Boao Forum for Asia, told the South China Morning Post that many companies from the Netherlands would “love to participate” in China’s belt and road trade plan. Photo: Bloomberg

(One time use only). For 2018 Belt & Road Initiative -- A direct freight train from Prague to China was dispatched for the first time today, on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, loaded mostly with Czech goods worth about USD5m. The train called YXE CR Express is carrying Czech crystal glass products, car component parts, beer and other traditional products from the Czech Republic and other European countries. In the future, the train should connect Prague and the town of Yiwu in the Chinese province of Zhejiang regularly. Credit: CTK/Alamy Live News

One killed and three injured after van drives into group of people at Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands

Festival-goers in Landgraaf, the Netherlands, enjoy the first day of Pinkpop on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

REFILE - ADDING INFORMATION Visitors leave the festival grounds near a scene where a van struck into people after a concert at the Pinkpop festival in Landgraaf, the Netherlands June 18, 2018. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen

epa06817941 Dutch police has sealed off the site after a van reportedly run into a group of cocert goers at a festival in Landgraaf, The Netherlands, 18 June 2018. It was reported that at least one person was killed and three others injured in the crash before the driver in the van was fleeing the scene. Police in the Dutch Limburg province are reportedly still looking for the white van. The pre-dawn crash happened early 18 June near a camping site close to the famous Pinkpop festival in Landgraaf. The three-days concert festival, which ended late 17 June with a performance of US artist Bruno Mars, is usually attended by tens of thousands of visitors. EPA-EFE/PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW

Chinese man who smuggled five rhino horns through the Netherlands is jailed by Dutch court

A Chinese man has been jailed in the Netherlands for smuggling five rhino horns and other contraband through Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. He was flying from South Africa to Shanghai when the horns were found in his luggage. Pictured: one of the world's last two female northern white rhinos in Kenya last week. Photo: Xinhua

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World

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Police declined to comment whether there was a link between Friday’s attack and a competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad


Police would not say if there was a link between the attack and a competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad


Terrorism

Islamic militancy

Two US citizens hurt in Dutch ‘terrorist’ knife attack

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Police declined to comment whether there was a link between Friday’s attack and a competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad

Police declined to comment whether there was a link between Friday’s attack and a competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammad