Turkish suspect of Utrecht shooting was arrested over having links to the ISIS terrorist group

Dutch police released a picture of a Turkish-born man they are hunting over a shooting on a tram in Utrecht on March 18 that left at least three dead and several injured.

“The police are asking you to look out for 37-year-old Gokman Tanis (born in Turkey) in connection with the incident this morning,” Utrecht police said on Twitter, adding: “Do not approach him.”

The suspect, Gökmen Tanış, had been to Chechnya “to fight” before, BBC Turkish quoted an anonymous businessperson as saying.

“He was arrested over suspected links to the ISIL a few years ago and then released,” the Turkish businessperson living in the Netherlands said.

“At this stage, we can confirm three deaths and nine wounded, three of them seriously,” Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen said in a video statement on Twitter.

“We are working on the principle that it was a terrorist attack,” he said. “We are working on the principle that it was a terrorist attack,” he added.

The Dutch police later corrected the number of injured people as five.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte earlier said there were “possible deaths” and that a terrorist motive was “not excluded”.

The Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, quoting a witness of the incident, said the gunman had targeted a woman on the tram and then shot other people who had tried to help her.

Source: Hyrriyet Daily News