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Allah-Las gig cancelled in Rotterdam due to terrorism warning Allah-Las gig cancelled in Rotterdam due to terrorism warning
(about 9 hours later)
Police in Rotterdam detained the driver of a van with Spanish licence plates and a number of gas tanks inside after a concert by the US rock band Allah-Las was cancelled following a terrorism warning. Dutch police say they have detained a man in the eastern Brabant province in connection with a threat that forced the cancellation of a concert by a US rock band in the port city of Rotterdam.
The Dutch city’s 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 examine the van, police said. Police spokesman Roland Ekkers said a 22-year-old man was detained in the early hours of Thursday. No further details about his arrest were immediately available.
Police said the concert, which had been due to take place on Wednesday night, was called off after Dutch police received a terrorism warning. Aboutaleb said the warning had come from Spanish police. US band the Allah-Las cancelled a gig in Rotterdam at the last minute on Wednesday after Spanish police tipped Dutch authorities off about a terror threat. A Spanish man in a white Spanish-registered van containing some gas canisters was detained for questioning near the concert venue hours later.
He declined to give further details on the nature of the warning or where in Spain it had come from, adding that it was too soon to link the van to the unspecified threat directed at the concert. “It is not yet good to say that the things are linked,” 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.” Ekkers said the Spanish man was drunk and will be questioned later. Ekkers said it is “not likely” that the suspect is a terror threat.
A Dutch counter-terrorism official said the van was not connected to the recent attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils in which 15 people died and more than 120 were injured. A Spanish counterterrorism official said the Spanish-registered van was not believed to be connected to the attacks that killed 15 people in Barcelona and Cambrils last week.
Spanish news agency Europa Press, quoting Spanish anti-terrorist force sources, reported later that the Spaniard arrested in Rotterdam had, in principle, no link to jihadist terrorism, Reuters reported. The gas canisters in his vehicle were apparently for domestic use, it said. The official said a possible link between the driver and the extremist cell that carried out the Catalonia attacks was ruled out after questioning the driver and examining the van.
The van driver was questioned for about two hours after a concert by the Los Angeles band Allah-Las was called off after Dutch police received a terror warning. Rotterdam’s mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, said the warning came from Spanish police.
After military explosives experts had checked the van the vehicle was driven away by a police officer, the Dutch broadcaster NOS reported.
Police said the van contained “a couple of gas bottles”.
The Dutch terror threat level, which is at level four of a five-step scale, remained unchanged, said Lodewijk Hekking, a spokesman for the country’s counterterror chief.
The Spanish counterterrorism investigation official said Spain’s civil guard received “an alert indicating the possibility of an attack today in a concert that was going to take place in Rotterdam”.
Police in Spain have been investigating the deadly vehicle attacks last week in and near Barcelona. They later found bomb-making equipment that included more than 100 tanks of butane gas, nails and 500 litres of acetone.
Rotterdam police said they took the information about a threat “seriously enough that after discussion with organisers it was decided to cancel the event”.Rotterdam police said they took the information about a threat “seriously enough that after discussion with organisers it was decided to cancel the event”.
The 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. The concert’s organiser, Rotown, tweeted that the concert venue, a former grain silo called Maassilo, was being evacuated before it started because of the unspecified threat.
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. 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. By midnight, the area was calm and police had lifted the cordon, NOS reported.
A spokesman for the Dutch justice ministry told AFP the threat level in the Netherlands remained at “four” out of a possible five. Mexican Summer, the Allah-Las’s label, said: “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.”
“Nothing has changed for the moment,” Lodewijk Hekking said, meaning the threat levels remains that there is the real possibility of an attack in the Netherlands.
Allah-Las are a four-piece band from Los Angeles. Their 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 had chosen the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and had not realised it might cause offence.In an interview with the Guardian last year, band members said they had chosen the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and had not realised 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,” said the lead singer, Miles Michaud. “We email back and explain why we chose the name and mainly they understand.”“We get emails from Muslims, here in the US and around the world, saying they’re offended, but that absolutely wasn’t our intention,” said the lead singer, Miles Michaud. “We email back and explain why we chose the name and mainly they understand.”