A 24-year-old member of a nationalist right-wing student association has been arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

The man was been arrested in Badhoeverdorp on Thursday after police were tipped off that he had firearms in his possession and was willing to commit a terrorist act, the public prosecution service said.

A subsequent police raid at his address in Erp in Brabant turned up illegal weapons and ammunition.

On Monday the right-wing student network GNSV (Greater Netherlands Students’ Association) told Omroep Gelderland he was a member of its Nijmegen branch. The man had earlier admitted to membership of the extreme right-wing organisation Geuzenbond.

The Geuzenbond targets young people in the Netherlands and Belgium and aims to “normalise right-wing extremist propaganda and strengthen the resilience of the white race through physical training”, the OM said. It has been qualified as extreme right-wing by the Dutch national anti-terrorist coordinator NCTV.

GNSV, which describes itself as a “right-wing nationalist” organisation and wants Flanders to be reunited with the Netherlands, said in a reaction on Telegram it was “shocked” by the news of the arrest and that it had suspended the man pending his trial.

The alleged terrorist intention of the man “is in no way part of the democratic debate the student association takes part in”, GNSV chair Daan Meershoek told the NRC.

The presence of the GNSV at student information fairs in Nijmegen and Leiden during the introduction weeks for new students has been controversial. In June this year, members of the organisation put flowers on the grave of Hans Janmaat, a far-right Dutch politician was convicted of inciting racial hatred in 1995.

On Friday, the man was ordered to remain in custody for two weeks.