hree people, including a fourteen-year-old girl, have been killed by a gunman who opened fire in a flat and then a medical centre classroom in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, police said.
A 32-year-old suspect, a student, has been arrested over the shootings at the Erasmus Medical Centre and a home. Police said fires had broken out at both locations.
The attacker wore a bulletproof vest as he shot dead a 39-year-old woman and seriously injured her14-year-old daughter in his neighbourhood, police chief Fred Westerbeke said.
Police said the girl later died of her injuries.
The gunman then went to the nearby Erasmus Medical Centre, where he shot and killed a 46-year-old male teacher at the academic hospital.
Earlier, police said a man wearing military clothing and carrying a handgun had shot and wounded a person in a university hospital classroom, with another person injured in a nearby home.
The 32-year-old suspect was arrested on the hospital’s helipad, officers added and nobody else is currently being sought.
“We have been shocked by a horrible incident. Shots were fired in two different places in the city. Many people witnessed it,” Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said.
“Emotions in the city are very high. My condolences go out to the victims.”
The suspect was known to police, said Hugo Hillenaar, Rotterdam’s chief prosecutor.
No motive was immediately given for the shootings.
The Erasmus Medical Center appealed on social media for people not to go to the hospital as emergency services dealt with the scene.
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.
