A meeting for parents of pupils at the Islamic high school Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam, which is at the centre of alleged links to terrorism, was cancelled on Tuesday evening after too many people turned up.

The city had estimated a maximum 250 people would come to the meeting but the total was much higher.

Mayor Femke Halsema, who had convened the meeting, said she had been surprised by the turn-out. ‘We had not counted on people coming from different cities. It’s a shame,’ she told broadcaster NOS.

The mayor declined to comment further on security service claims that members of the school board had terrorist links.

A number of parents were angry and said that without proof they would continue support the board and the school. One parent said the accusation had ‘put the children in danger’ while another claimed that if there were proof the culprits ‘would have been locked up by now’.

A new meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Funding

Earlier Islamic organisations in the Netherlands called on the board of Amsterdam’s only Islamic high school to resign following the claims. Funding for the school was also frozen.

The Haga Lyceum opened its doors in 2017, despite efforts by both the city council and the education ministry to prevent it from opening. Education minister Arie Slob has said that plans to expand the school to other cities will be rejected.

However, chairman of the board Soner Atasov told NOS that the there will be more schools in The Hague, Utrecht and Rotterdam. ‘If we cannot do it via the regular procedures we will pay for it ourselves,’ he said.