Dutch police arrest tram attack killer
published : 19 Mar 2019 at 08:57
writer: Gary Boyle
ORIGINAL SOURCE/WRITER: AFP
UTRECHT, Netherlands: Dutch police on Monday arrested a Turkish-born suspect over a terrorist attack on a tram in the city of Utrecht that left three people dead and five wounded.
Police had earlier launched a huge manhunt for Gokmen Tanis, 37, issuing a picture of him on the tram and warning the public not to approach him.
Heavily armed officers later surrounded a building following the bloodshed in the Netherlands' fourth largest city and his arrest was dramatically announced at the end of a news conference.
Dutch authorities said they were still investigating a likely terrorist motive for the attack but said they "cannot exclude" other motives, including a family argument.
"We have just heard that the suspect we are looking for has been arrested," Utrecht police chief Rob van Bree told a news conference after being handed a piece of paper with news of the arrest.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the theory that it was a terror attack "could not be excluded", vowing that the Netherlands would "never give way to intolerance".
Officials said that they "could not exclude" reports that the gunman had targeted a woman known to him and others who tried to help her.
Suspect Tanis was reportedly in court in a rape case two weeks ago, broadcaster NOS said.
Learn from listening
Vocabulary
- approach: to move closer to someone or something - เข้าใกล้
- bloodshed: a situation in which people are killed or injured, especially during fighting - การนองเลือด
- dramatically: in a big way - อย่างใหญ่หลวง
- exclude: to intentionally not include something - แยกออกไป
- intolerance: not willing to accept ideas or ways of behaving that are different from your own - การไม่ยอมรับความคิดที่แตกต่างไป, ความไม่อดทน
- manhunt: an organised search for a person, especially a criminal - การล่าหัว การตามล่าจับกุม
- motive: a reason for doing something - แรงจูงใจ
- rape: the crime of forcefully having sex with someone against their wish - การข่มขืน
- suspect: a person who is thought to have committed a crime - ผู้ต้องสงสัย
- target: to deliberately try to attack someone or something - เป้าหมาย
- tram: a long narrow vehicle that travels along metal tracks in the middle of a street and is used as public transport in some places - รถราง