Shropshire Star

Van driver held by Rotterdam police after concert cancelled following terror tip

Military explosives experts were deployed to Rotterdam to examine the van, police said.

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An Allah-Las concert in Rotterdam was cancelled amid fears of a terror attack

Police in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam detained the driver of a van with Spanish licence plates and a number of gas tanks inside after a concert by an American rock band was cancelled on Wednesday night following a threat, the city’s mayor said.

Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said at a hastily arranged press conference that the van’s Spanish driver was being questioned by police.

Military explosives experts were deployed to Rotterdam to examine the van, police said.

Security forces attend the venue where Allah-Las cancelled their concert because of a terror alert
Security forces attend the venue where Allah-Las cancelled their concert because of a terror alert (RTL/AP)

Police earlier said the concert by Los Angeles band Allah-Las was called off after Dutch police received a terror warning.

Mr Aboutaleb said the warning came from Spanish police.

He declined to give further details on the nature of the warning or where in Spain it came from, adding that it was too soon to link the van to unspecified threat directed at the concert.

“It is not yet good to say that the things are linked,” Mr Aboutaleb said.

“It still has to be established that there was a link between the van and the threat. We can’t say that yet.”

Streets around the concert venue have been cordoned off by security forces
Streets around the concert venue have been cordoned off by security forces (RTL/AP)

Rotterdam police said they took the information about a threat “seriously enough that after discussion with organisers it was decided to cancel the event”.

Concert organiser Rotown said earlier on Twitter that the concert venue, a former grain silo called Maassilo, was being evacuated because of the unspecified threat.

The show had not yet started when the decision to cancel it was made.

Dutch television showed officers in body armour outside Maassilo and what appeared to be members of the band leaving the venue in a white van with a police escort.

Allah-Las is a four-piece band from Los Angeles.

The band’s label, Mexican Summer, said: “Due to a potential terror threat at The Maassilo in Rotterdam, the Allah-Las show was cancelled tonight.

“Details are not available at this time as the incident is still under investigation.

“The band is unharmed and are very grateful to the Rotterdam Police and other responsible agencies for detecting the potential threat before anyone was hurt.”

In an interview with The Guardian last year, band members said they chose the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and did not realise it might cause offence.

“We get emails from Muslims, here in the US and around the world, saying they’re offended, but that absolutely wasn’t our intention,” lead singer Miles Michaud told the newspaper.

“We email back and explain why we chose the name, and mainly they understand.”

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