The five are suspected of involvement in the preparation of a terrorist crime. Immediately after the arrests in the morning, their homes were searched. Four of the arrested men are between 20 and 30 years old and come from non-Western countries. Nothing further is known about the fifth.
The investigation will continue in the coming days, the police said. “The emphasis is on further research into the nature and scale of the terrorist threat.” The police would not elaborate.
In June two men were arrested in Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism as well as being members of a terrorist organisation. It is believed that they had wanted to attack the security services in the Netherlands.
In September seven men were arrested who, according to the Public Prosecution, wanted to commit a major terrorist attack on an unnamed event. Two of these men come from Rotterdam and one from Vlaardingen.
In the latest arrests, according to De Telegraaf, a young woman, relative of one of the four terrorist suspects taken away in the Rotterdam region, confirmed that they hardly spoke any Dutch. According to neighbours, they are “Syrian refugees” living in a fifteen-story apartment building in the Rotterdam Ommoord-Prins Alexander suburb.
“We were all asleep this morning when suddenly police rushed in with a lot of banging. My husband was pulled out of bed and taken away. I do not know why,” the young woman told an interpreter on the phone. She declined to confirm that they are in fact Syrian.
According to a neighbour, the “Syrian” worked as a mechanic in a garage in the neighbourhood. “Pretty scary that this happens so close by. I hope that no explosives are found.”
Another Dutch neighbour in the multiculti building, told the daily: “A terrorist was taken away with a bag over his head. As many as twenty heavily armed officers came into their flat and I heard a lot of shouting and screaming.”