A man who drove a car carrying two gas bottles into Bemmel town hall in Gelderland in the early hours of this morning died when one of the bottle exploded, local newspaper De Gelderlander reports

The body of the man was found near the car, an indication he may have tried to flee the scene, police said. The town hall suffered extensive damage, the paper writes.

Police said on Twitter they had ‘a solid suspicion’ about who carried out the attack which is not thought to be linked to terrorism.

According to a spokesman for the fire brigade, police had recently received a threat connected to the incident. ‘You have to have a pretty big grievance against the authorities to do something like this,’ he told the paper.

The mayor of Lingewaard, Marianne Schuurmans said she was not aware of the threat. ‘I am completely taken aback by the news (..) I have no idea where this came from. But it is awful a life was lost,’ she told the Gelderlander.

Police are investigating what exactly motivated the man.