An American national who stabbed two police officers in Groningen during the coronavirus lockdown in March 2021 has been jailed for seven years to be followed by treatment in a psychiatric clinic.

The man was found guilty of attempted murder and causing serious physical harm when he attacked the police officers who questioned him after he and another man were out on their bikes after curfew.

The police officers, one of whom was stabbed in the neck and face, had asked the men to show their ID when they were attacked. The two men fled to France after the incident where they were later arrested.

The American national, who was born in 1989, has lived illegally in the Netherlands since September 2020 while his 22-year-old friend had previously been in a psychiatric hospital.

The American told the court he had stabbed the police officer because his friend did not have ID and he feared their relationship would end if he was sent back to the clinic.

The public prosecution department had called for 117 days in jail for the younger man, but the court ruled his role in the incident was minor and that he should be allowed to go free.