Five people injured, police say

Five people have been injured following a stabbing near the central Dam Square in Amsterdam, police say.

The injured include two Americans, a Polish man, a Belgian woman and Dutch woman. The youngest is 19 and the oldest 73, police add.

The male suspect, who has been arrested, was overpowered with the help of bystanders and taken to hospital with a leg injury.

The motive behind the attack is “under investigation”, police say, but they are considering the possibility that the suspect may have chosen people at random.

The Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema said a police investigation was “in full swing” and authorities hoped to uncover more details of what happened soon.

“Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and loved ones.”

The wounded people are a 67-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man, both from the US; a 26-year-old man from Poland; a 73-year-old woman from Belgium; and a 19-year-old woman from Amsterdam.

Police said just before 15:30 local time (14:30 GMT) emergency services received several reports of a stabbing incident.

Officers then quickly arrived at the scene and found five injured people at various locations in and around Sint Nicolaasstraat in the centre of the city, police said.

With the help of bystanders, officers apprehended a suspect shortly after the incident, police said.

Authorities cordoned-off a large area around the Royal Palace in the central Dam Square, where an emergency helicopter landed.

The square is popular with tourists lying at the heart of the historic district of the city.

One witness told the Dutch paper De Telegraaf that they suddenly heard an “icy scream” and after that panic broke out in the area.

A shop assistant also said that she heard a lot of shouting and screaming and that people started running, the paper reported.

Amsterdam outlet Het Parool quoted a witness saying he approached a girl after hearing a noise. As someone else shouted to call an ambulance, he saw a knife “sticking out from the girl’s back, between her shoulders”.

The police are urging anyone with images of the incident to upload them as evidence.

The number of injured people was for a time said to be four, but in a later update the police said five people were wounded as well as the suspect.