Three minors were wounded in a stabbing in the main shopping street in The Hague, police said. Police said they were still hunting a male suspect following the attack, which happened in a department store in the centre of the city. The attack came hours after two people were stabbed to death in a terror-related attack in London. “All three victims of the stabbing incident in Grote Marktstraat are minors. We are in contact with their families,” The Hague police said on Twitter.
“We are still looking for the perpetrator,” they said, adding that they were conducting “extensive investigations.”
“We are currently taking all scenarios into account,” a Dutch police spokeswoman said.
The stabbing was also not far from parliament in The Hague, which is the seat of government for the Netherlands and home to many international organisations.
In London, several people were injured after a stabbing spree near the iconic London Bridge. The police said that it shot a suspect and cordoned off the area. The police is treating the stabbing attack as a "terror related" incident. "Circumstances surrounding stabbing incident near London Bridge unclear but it is being treated as terror-related as a precaution," Metropolitan Police said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was being updated about the incident and thanked police and emergency services for the quick reponse to the attack. "I’m being kept updated on the incident at London Bridge and want to thank the police and all emergency services for their immediate response," the prime minister said.
London Bridge was one of the areas targeted by an ISIS-claimed terrorist attack in June 2017, when 11 people died as terrorists went on a stabbing spree after ramming a van into pedestrians.
Eyewitnesses said that they saw a group of people running dawn the London Bridge in panic and gunshots, probably fired by police, were also heard. "We were told to keep away from the windows, people that came from the outside were saying that shots were fired.” Noa Bodner, who is stuck in a restaurant on London Bridge, told BBC News channel.
She said the manager ran to lock the doors and staff told people to move away from the front of the restaurant. "There was a rush of people coming in and everybody basically dived under the tables."