Hague stabbing: Man arrested after teenagers attacked in busy shopping area

Shoppers fled as two 15-year-old girls and 13-year-old boy knifed

Dutch police have arrested a 35-year-old man suspected of stabbing three teenagers in one of The Hague’s busiest shopping areas on Black Friday.

The suspect, described as having no fixed address, is being questioned at a police station.

The wounded, two 15-year-old girls and a 13-year-old boy, were all sent home from hospital within hours.

National broadcaster NOS quoted two witnesses as saying the girls had run screaming from the street into a store. One said an “athletic” man fled the scene, jumping easily over obstacles.

Crowds of shoppers fled along the street as the attack happened, and the city centre area of in Grote Marktstraat was later cordoned off for hours as first aid workers helped victims and police combed the area for clues.

Police said that it was unclear whether the stabbing was a terrorist attack.

The stabbing spree came hours after Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist, stabbed to death a man and a woman and injured several others at London Bridge.

The Netherlands was shocked by a similar stabbing in Amsterdam a year ago when two Americans were injured in a knife attack that prosecutors say had a “terrorist motive”.

However, the country has a low rate of violent crime, with official statistics showing murder and manslaughter cases fell significantly last year.