Amsterdam police now say four of the five stabbing victims in central Amsterdam were foreign nationals—two Americans aged 69 and 67, a 73-year-old woman from Belgium, and a 26-year-old man from Poland. The Dutch victim was a 19-year-old woman from Amsterdam.

Two of the victims are seriously hurt.

The stabbings took place in several locations close to Dam Square in the centre of the city on Thursday afternoon.

The suspect was stopped in the nearby Gravenstraat shortly after the incident by a bystander who sat on him until the police arrived. The suspect was injured in the leg and taken to hospital.

“The motive behind the attack is currently unclear and under investigation,” the police said in a statement.

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said the police investigation has the highest priority. “We hope to gain clarity soon about the background of this horrific stabbing incident,” she said. “Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and loved ones.”

So far, the attacks appear to be random. Two young men told AT5 their friend had seen a girl being stabbed in the St. Nicolaasstraat at close range. “A nutcase was behind him and then stabbed a woman. It might as well have been our friend,” one said.

A worker at the De 3 Fleschjes bar told the Parool that customers had seen an older woman being stabbed in the back before she fell to the ground.

Police have appealed for anyone with footage of the incident to get in touch as a matter of urgency.

Justice Minister David van Weel said it is too early to say anything about the reasons for the attack but that he was not ruling anything out. He praised the speed of the police reaction, saying they arrived at the scene extremely quickly. “They did a fantastic job,” he said.

Several alleys around the Nieuwendijk shopping street and the Dam remain cordoned off by police tape as the investigation continues into Thursday night.

Mental health issues

After seven fatal stabbings by mentally ill people last year, Amsterdam recently launched a single reporting point to try to identify confused individuals in time to help them.

Halsema said at the time that people are slipping through the gaps in the overloaded mental health system, including dramatically more people who have become homeless and jobless after coronavirus.