Update on shooting in Utrecht: flags will fly half-staff, elections will continue as planned

After yesterday’s shooting in Utrecht, which left three people dead and nine others injured, flags around the country will fly at half-staff today, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a press conference yesterday evening.

What we know so far

The press conference was held by Rutte and the Minister of Security and Justice, Ferdinand Grapperhaus. It was held less than an hour before the main suspect, Gökmen T, was arrested. Rutte did not explicitly state that it was a terrorist attack, and said, “let’s not make this smaller than it is. It’s an attack. Whatever the motive is.”

T’s family have also said that he was suffering from mental health issues and problems at home. It is also known that he was due to appear in court just 2 weeks ago for three different cases, reports NOS. To know more about the eye witness accounts, see our previous article. Two other suspects have been arrested, and detained, although we are not sure how they could be connected.

With everyone’s attention on getting to the bottom of this shooting in Utrecht, Rutte briefly touched upon the upcoming elections. In light of the tragic event, the debate scheduled for Monday night was cancelled, and campaigning was suspended. However, the elections itself will go forward as planned.

Featured picture: wikipedia / cc / rhino

 

 

Kavana Desai
Kavana Desaihttps://medium.com/@kavanadesai
Coping with the aftermath of her 3-year stint in the Netherlands, Kavana is a writer, content creator and editor for DutchReview. Hailing from India, she frequently blogs about the Netherlands, being Indian in the Netherlands, and everything in between. She envisions herself to one day be the youngest person to win that Nobel Prize for Literature (she is also not very humble but welcomes only constructive criticism). In the meantime, she fills her days with writing for DutchReview, writing her master's thesis on art theft, and writing fiction that will hopefully see the light of day soon.

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