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Dutch probe Spanish van found with gas canisters after terror tip
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Love, not hate: Muslims attend a demonstration in Granada on August 23, 2017 in protest against a surge in anti-Islamic hate crimes following last week's deadly attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. The protest was called after the city's main mosque was attacked with flares on August 19, 2017 by a handful of members from a far-right group, Hogar Social, who also unfurled a Spanish flag outside building, according to images on Spanish TV.
(AFP/Jorge Guerrero)
D
utch police are investigating possible terror links after arresting a Spaniard driving a van containing gas canisters close to a rock concert which was abruptly cancelled over fears of an attack.
The man "was arrested and taken to the police station," Rotterdam police said in a Tweet, following a tip-off from Spanish authorities.
The arrest came little under a week after twin car-bomb attacks in Spain killed 15 people, in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
Dutch bomb squad officials "were investigating the van" which was found just two streets away from the Maassilo concert hall where an American rock band was due to play, they added.
Earlier in the evening Dutch authorities decided to cancel the concert by Californian group Allah-Las in Europe's largest port city after a tip-off from Spanish police around 5:30pm (1530 GMT) about a possible terror attack.
"In the early evening I was warned by telephone that we had received a threat which had implications for an American concert at the Maassilo in Rotterdam," the city's mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, told a hastily-called press conference.
"This signal came from the Spanish police to the Dutch police," he added.
But Aboutaleb, the country's first Muslim and immigrant-born mayor who has spoken out against Islamic terror groups, added an investigation was under way and "we cannot say now if the van with the canisters was linked to the threat".
The four-piece band, from Los Angeles, had been escorted from the concert hall by police wearing bullet-proof vests.
In a statement sent to AFP, they said they were "unharmed and are very grateful to the Rotterdam police and other responsible agencies for detecting the potential threat before anyone was hurt."
Rotterdam police said that afterwards an officer "stationed close to the venue decided to stop a van that he saw driving at around 21:30 hrs".
"The van had Spanish plates and was driven by a Spanish national. Inside the van were a couple of gas bottles. Whether there is a link with the terror threat is being looked into," the statement in English said, adding "the driver was taken into custody".
