Three men shot dead

Police catch Rotterdam gunman

(Bild: APA/AFP/ANP/MICHEL VAN BERGEN)

After three fatal shooting attacks in Rotterdam, the Dutch police in the port city arrested a 24-year-old suspect late on Thursday evening. A task force arrested the man on the balcony of an apartment, where a firearm was also found and confiscated.

The motive of the shooter, who murdered three men on the street within two weeks for no apparent reason, is still unclear, the Dutch police announced. A 20-year-old from Amsterdam who had been arrested in the meantime was released. It was said that he was not the wanted man.

Large-scale search for perpetrator
The police had launched a large-scale manhunt for the gunman who last attacked an 81-year-old man on Thursday morning. The pensioner was found seriously injured in a flower bed and later died in hospital.

Previously, a 58-year-old and a 63-year-old man from Rotterdam were shot and fatally injured by the unknown man in the street, both in a remote location and, like the 81-year-old, in the IJsselmonde district.

Victims not from a criminal background
As the newspaper "De Telegraaf" reported with reference to the police, the victims were not known from the criminal milieu. The investigators therefore did not assume that there was a settling of accounts or a criminal conflict.

30,000 euro reward offered
The public prosecutor's office recently offered a reward of 30,000 euros for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. The investigators did not initially disclose how they tracked down the 24-year-old. The police had also published several mugshots showing the possible perpetrator before two of his shooting attacks.

Police had already been on the streets of the district where the gunman struck for days with a large contingent.