The 33-year-old man who took a woman hostage at the offices of public broadcaster NOS in Hilversum on Thursday has said he wanted air time, the public prosecution department said on Friday.

The man, who comes from The Hague, has psychiatric problems. He apparently wanted airtime to share a message about his delusions, the department said.

The man stopped the woman outside the NPO building and threatened her with a knife at around 8am on Thursday morning. The receptionist told NOS the man had pressed a large knife to his victim’s throat and spoke in broken Dutch, demanding to speak to someone from CNN.

Police, who sealed off a large part of the media park, ended the hostage-taking after around 90 minutes.

In January 2015, a young student took over the NOS news studio demanding airtime to air conspiracy theories. He has since been jailed.