Dutch terror suspect arrested while filming outside stadium


An aerial view of the Philips Stadium in Eindhoven in 1999. Dutch singer Guus Meeuwis was performing on Friday when police arrested a man filming outside the stadium. – EPA file pic, June 10, 2017.

A DUTCHMAN was arrested filming outside one of the country’s largest stadiums during a concert, police said today, adding that he was known to authorities as being possibly radicalised.

The 29-year-old was arrested late yesterday outside the Philips Stadium in southern Eindhoven where popular Dutch pop singer Guus Meeuwis was performing.

It comes just a few weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people on May 22 at the end of a concert in Manchester by US singer Ariana Grande.

“Officers saw the man late on Friday, behaving suspiciously at one of the stadium’s entrances,” Dutch police said in a statement.

“He was filming and had no reasonable explanation for what he was doing, and also had no ticket to the concert,” Eindhoven police added.

The man, from Amsterdam, was also “known to police due to possible radicalisation… so it was decided to detain him.”

The Netherlands has been on high alert following a slew of attacks around Europe in recent months, including last month’s Manchester suicide bombing which went off as fans were leaving the arena after Grande’s concert.

There was a heavy police presence yesterday at the Philips Stadium, home to the PSV football team with a capacity of 35,000, but police said there had been “no real threat.”

Eindhoven mayor John Jorritsma said the concert ended “peacefully” and paid tribute in a tweet to the police and the organisers. – AFP, June 10, 2017.


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