Two people from Maastricht, arrested on New Year’s Eve in connection with an alleged plot to launch a terror attack in Rotterdam during the official fireworks display, have been released without charge.

The public prosecution department issued a statement on Saturday saying there is no evidence to support a tip-off that an attack was being planned and there is ‘no evidence whatsoever’ to suggest the two people arrested were planning an attack.

Earlier on Saturday, Dutch media reported that the Erasmus bridge firework display was almost cancelled after police received a tip that it could be a target.

Danger

‘That signal was taken extremely seriously, given the fact that so many people at the show could have been in danger,’ the public prosecution statement said.

The initial investigation led to two people in Maastricht being arrested. Dutch media initially described them as ‘Muslims’. Later, local broadcaster 1Limburg.nl, said one of the two people arrested was a woman.

The decision to let the show to go ahead was taken following the arrests and after consultations between mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb and the police chief, 1Limburg.nl reported.

Update

RTL news reported on Sunday that the woman at the centre of the scare is Dutch Muslim convert Aicha, who spent nine months in Syria as a jihadi bride in 2014.

The woman was was released from custody in November 2014 and was told in May 2015, she would not face any charges.

Her lawyer Francoise Landerloo said police had been at her home three times on December 31, before arresting her in her nightclothes at 23.45.