Rotterdam shooting at Erasmus hospital & home leaves two dead, including a teacher and mother and her teen daughter seriously injured after 32 year old student gunman wearing military gear and bullet proof vest went on rampage. Gunman was previously known to authorities. No known motive.
Two people have been killed and a third person seriously injured in Rotterdam following two shootings at a hospital and a nearby home, Dutch police have confirmed.
A male suspect donning military clothing opened fire inside a classroom at a Dutch university hospital and a nearby house, resulting in at least two deaths and a serious injury.
Terrified students, patients and health workers ran for their lives out of the Erasmus Medical Centre, affiliated with Erasmus University, at around 2pm today in the port city of Rotterdam.
The Erasmus medical center is one of Europe’s leading university hospitals.
Were student gunman’s victims specifically targeted?
Police revealed that the 32-year-old suspected shooter, who wore a bulletproof vest, killed a 39-year-old woman and a 46-year-old male teacher at the university, where he was a student.
He also shot and seriously injured the 14-year-old daughter of the woman who died in the attack.
None of the victims or the shooter had yet to be publicly identified.
Rotterdam’s chief prosecutor said that motive for the shooting has still not been determined.
De Telegraaf reported that the suspect shot two people at a house on Heiman Dullaertplein in the west of the city before setting the home on fire. It’s understood he then drove to the Erasmus MC, less than a mile away.
It was here that a second shooting reportedly took place in a classroom. From there the suspect started another fire in the facility, sparking panic.
BREAKING: Shooting in Medical Center Erasmus, Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/57N3pIEuKY
— Retr0𝕏Muted (@Irshan20021) September 28, 2023
Man opgepakt het Erasmus mc #Chaos #Rotterdam pic.twitter.com/FN2VbMGQMN
— Skylar (@deenigeskylar) September 28, 2023
Student gunman was known to authorities
Videos posted online showed police instructing students, some wearing medical gowns, to run outside as heavily armed arrest teams arrived at the scene. One video showed a man in handcuffs wearing what appeared to be camouflage pants.
‘First there was a shooting on the fourth floor. Four or five shots were fired. Then a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the education centre,’ said a medical student cited by RTL Nieuws, who did not give his name.
‘We have been shocked by a horrible incident. Shots were fired in two different places in the city. Many people witnessed it,’ Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said. ‘Emotions in the city are very high. My condolences go out to the victims.’
‘The suspect was known to law enforcement and in 2021 he was prosecuted and convicted for animal abuse,’ said Hugo Hillenaar, Rotterdam’s chief prosecutor.
Rotterdam is home to the busiest port in all of Europe and is the second most populous city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam, home to more than half a million people.
In July, two people and a gunman were injured in a shooting at a summer carnival in Rotterdam.
The gunman was shot by police several times after opening fire.
There have also been scores of small explosions and at homes and businesses across Rotterdam this year, blamed on rival drug gangs.
In 2019, three people were shot dead on a tram in Utrecht, sparking a huge manhunt.
In 2011, the country was left shocked when 24-year-old Tristan van der Vlis killed six people and wounded 10 others in a rampage at a packed shopping mall.
