Two teenage Syrian asylum seekers who were shot dead in Amsterdam on New Year’s Day may have been the victims of a prank call, prosecutors have said.

The male youths, aged 16 and 18, were killed near the Sloterplas lake in Amsterdam Nieuw-West just before midnight. Both were living in a refugee accommodation centre in the capital.

Police at first believed they may have been caught up in a dispute between Syrians and Spanish-speaking youths with a South American background, sources told Het Parool.

But at a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors said the killing may have been a case of mistaken identity.

The suspect, a 25-year-old identified as Efe Y., received a call telling him to go to a blue bridge in Amsterdam’s Piet Wiedijkpark, the prosecution said.

When he got there he fired at three youths who were sitting there without warning. “There was no time for an argument, a conversation or an attack from their side”, the prosecution said.

The third member of the group, a 17-year-old, managed to flee the scene.

The court was told that Y. was receiving treatment under supervision for a serious psychiatric condition, but had not been taking medication in the period before the shooting.

He is due to be assessed at the Pieter Baan Centrum, where criminal suspects undergo psychiatric screening, shortly.