Amsterdam – A bus with Spanish license plates and containing gas bottles was found near a concert hall where earlier on Wednesday a rock concert was canceled due to a threat, Rotterdam’s mayor said.
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Ahmed Aboutaleb told a news conference it was not clear whether the threat and the bus were connected. The bus driver was taken into police custody for questioning, he said.
“The ring that the police set up around the (concert hall) led to the detention of a bus with gas bottles”, Aboutaleb said.
“Whether the bus with gas bottles can be linked to the threat, that cannot now be established.”
He warned against “swift conclusions”. A bomb squad was examining the bus.
Police said the concert, which was to feature Californian band Allah-Las, was canceled around 7 p.m. local time, shortly before doors were to be opened for guests, after a tip from Spanish police.
As concert-goers were sent away from the Maassilo, a former grain silo complex on the Maas river that has been converted into an event hall, the venue was cordoned off.
No arrests or detentions were reported until the bus driver was detained around 9 p.m. local time.
The National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism’s office said the threat level in the Netherlands was unchanged at “substantial”, where it has been for several years.
Any clarification on what they meant by “gas bottles”? Given the international nature of the story it’s unclear whether they meant, for example, emptied soda containers that were refilled with gasoline or…
… or, they could have meant what we in the US would generally refer to as propane cylinders.
(Propane is a common terrorist explosive, alas)
Update: he’s been released:
“Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP) – Dutch police Thursday released a van driver arrested over a suspected terror attack plot on a Rotterdam concert venue, but stepped up inquiries based on a “concrete” tip-off from Spain.
“The man was freed earlier this evening and is no longer a suspect in the investigation,” Rotterdam police said in a statement.
……
While officers did found a “couple of gas canisters” in the van, the driver was a mechanic who “appeared to be under the influence of an alcoholic substance,” police said.
Spanish police also ruled the man out of the inquiry. They said he had “five gas canisters in his van for domestic use” but was completely drunk.
Police chief Paauw said it looked as if “the man had had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/spanish-van-loaded-gas-canisters-found-rotterdam-213203175.html