The man who shot dead three people during a killing spree in Rotterdam was probably targeting the exam committee which ordered him to take a psychological test before it would award him a degree in medicine, it emerged on Friday afternoon.

Erasmus Medical Centre Stefan Sleijer said in a written statement the day after the shootings that the university had “signals” student Fouad L had been targeting the committee.

“One of the members who were at risk was taken to a place of safety by the police on time,” he said. The university told L to see a psychologist after receiving a warning from the public prosecution department about him.

L was not “unsympathetic” to a psychological test but in the end, he did not follow through as required, Sleijer said. There was no statement from a psychologist and it is unclear if he actually saw one.

On Friday afternoon a sea of flowers was growing outside the hospital where 43-year-old lecturer and GP Jurgen Damen was shot dead. Staff spoke of their shock at the killing.

Flowers too were piling up outside the home where a woman and her 14-year-old daughter were killed. They lived next door to L, and had reported him for animal abuse.

The dead woman, named as Marlous by the AD, had four children and the girl who died was one of twins. Neighbours said Marlous was terrified of L and that he had often shouted at the children.

Meanwhile, L’s rants on a 4chan chat group with the slug “political prosecution of Asperger men” have given more clues about his behavioural problems.

In the chat, L writes about being highly intelligent, considered weird by his fellow students and “becoming a raging alcoholic every time they suspend me”.

He also states that the university had refused to give him his diploma and that he therefore lost his job and is destitute.