Three youths wounded in stabbing attack in The Hague, suspect on the run

Dutch police say three people have been wounded in a stabbing attack in The Hague's main shopping street with a man in a grey jogging suit being sought.

Emergency services in The Hague, The Netherlands, following the stabbing.

Emergency services in The Hague, The Netherlands, following the stabbing. Source: ANP

Three youths were wounded in a stabbing in the main shopping street in The Hague as people hunted bargains on Black Friday, police said.

Police said they were still hunting a male suspect following the attack, which happened in a department store in the centre of the city.
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Dutch media said police were still keeping an open mind about the incident, which came hours after two people were stabbed to death in a terror-related attack in London.

"All three victims of the stabbing incident in Grote Marktstraat are minors. We are in contact with their families," The Hague police said on Twitter. The police did not give their ages.

"We are still looking for the perpetrator," they said, adding that they were conducting "extensive investigations".

"We are currently taking all scenarios into account," a Dutch police spokesperson was quoted as saying by the ANP news agency.

The stabbing happened at the Hudson's Bay department store in Grote Marktstraat, the biggest shopping area in The Hague, which is lined with major retailers and brands. 

Social media images showed shoppers running in panic away from the scene, on a nighttime retail street lit by Christmas fairy lights.
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Police said they were looking for a "slightly dark-skinned man" with curly hair aged between 40 and 50 wearing a black top, scarf and grey jogging bottoms.

The stabbing was also not far from parliament in The Hague, which is the seat of government for the Netherlands and home to many international organisations.

The US embassy warned its nationals in The Hague to avoid the area because of "reports of a security incident" and told them to let loved ones know they were safe.

, killing two, before he was tackled by members of the public and then fatally shot by officers on London Bridge, authorities said.

The Netherlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots, although not so far on the scale of those in other European countries.
In March four people were killed when a Turkish-born man opened fire on a tram in the city of Utrecht.

Dutch police on Monday arrested two suspected jihadists, one of them in The Hague, and charged them with planning a terror attack using suicide and car bombs.

Earlier this month a Pakistani man was sentenced to 10 years in jail for a plot to kill far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders.


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3 min read
Published 30 November 2019 7:46am
Updated 30 November 2019 12:22pm



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