There was no terrorist motive in Thursday night’s stabbing incidents in Maastricht which left two people dead and three injured, police said on Friday.

‘Our research has shown there is no reason at all to suggest these incidents had a terrorist motive,’ a spokesman told the Telegraaf.

Neighbours say the victims appear to be a man and a woman who were members of the same Syrian family but did not live together, the paper said.

The first stabbing took place after fight at around 9pm in the Botsaartsstraat, with the second several minutes later in the nearby Joseph Postnessstraat. But there is still no clear picture about what happened.

The Telegraaf says two people have been arrested in connection with the stabbings, one of whom was picked up near a mosque covered with blood and with a knife.