De Pijp stabbing suspect showed ‘disturbed behaviour’: eyewitnesses

The police investigation continued into Saturday. Photo: Evert Elzinga ANP
The police investigation continued into Saturday. Photo: Evert Elzinga ANP

The man who died in Friday night’s attacks in the Amsterdam district of De Pijp was a 64-year-old local, police said on Saturday.

The other four who were stabbed were all in their 20s. Three came from Amsterdam and one from Haarlem.

The 29-year-old man arrested in connection with the stabbing is not ‘known to the police’, the Amsterdam force said in a statement. Eyewitnesses say he was showing disturbed behaviour at the time of the seemingly random attacks.

‘My flatmate was sitting on the stairs smoking a cigarette and having a glass of wine with a couple of friends,’ one eyewitness told the Telegraaf. ‘Then this guy just came up and began wildly stabbing at the lad. He was hit in several places.’

Another eyewitness told the AD he had seen a girl being carried into an ambulance as he left the metro station. He then saw a second person lying on the ground by a night shop close to the Okura hotel.

Died at the scene

The man who was killed died at the scene after ambulance workers spent half an hour trying to save him, another eyewitness told the paper.

Police have not released any more information about the condition of the four other victims, who were all taken to hospital.

The suspect, who comes from Amstelveen, is being questioned by police on Saturday and police say so far they do not believe there was a terrorist motive for the attack.

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