OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:00 PM – Thursday, March 27, 2025
Five individuals, including two Americans, were severely injured on Thursday in a “stabbing attack” on a busy shopping street in Amsterdam by a knife-wielding attacker — according to Dutch police.
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The assaults started at approximately 3:30 p.m. local time and lasted for a few minutes before a bystander in the vicinity of the city’s Dam Square stopped the attacker.
A trauma helicopter and other ambulances were quickly dispatched to the location, and police surrounded the area — CBS reported.
In a statement, authorities said that although no motivation for the attack had been found, they were considering the possibility that the man had just chosen victims at random.
“The suspect was detained with the help of a civilian,” police spokesperson Eline Roovers told The Associated Press.
The identity of the suspect is now “under investigation,” police said, and they refrained from describing the violent suspect’s appearance.
“The motive behind the attack is currently unclear and under investigation. Police are considering the possibility that the suspect may have randomly targeted victims, but the exact motive remains unknown,” police announced in a statement.
When a bystander overpowered the male suspect in order to take him down, he reportedly injured his leg and was taken to the hospital.
A 67-year-old American woman, a 69-year-old American man, a 73-year-old Belgian woman, a 26-year-old Polish man, and a 19-year-old Dutch woman from Amsterdam were named as the victims.
“The police investigation is in full swing and has full priority at the moment. We hope to soon get more clarity about the background of this horrible stabbing,” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and loved ones.”
One witness told a foreign media outlet that the attacker had stabbed one of the women in the back, with the “perpetrator then running away,” according to DW, a German outlet.
“I saw a knife at least 10 centimeters (nearly four inches) sticking out of the girl’s back, between her shoulders,” they told Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool.
Last month, Amsterdam established a hotline for citizens to report suspicious activity. Following an inquiry that revealed a man had been fatally stabbed by his neighbor, the reporting mechanism was suggested.
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