A brutal stabbing attack in the late afternoon of the past Saturday has shocked the small Dutch town of Nieuwegein in the province of Utrecht. The Dutch police arrested a 29-year-old Moroccan man, who is suspected of killing an 11-year-old girl of Eritrean origin.
According to media reports, the police received multiple reports of a man wielding a weapon against a child around 3:00 pm. At the crime scene, officers found an 11-year-old girl with stab wounds. Despite resuscitation efforts, the girl died at the scene.
The swift security of the crime scene and early descriptions of the suspect led to the rapid arrest of a man who had been hiding in a nearby backyard. Initial media reports stated that the suspect was a Syrian, but later reports revealed that the suspect holds both Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.
The victim, an 11-year-old girl from an Eritrean family, had celebrated her birthday the day before the attack, according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The girl had been left at a friend’s house by her father for a playdate, but returned to the street, where the attacker struck and stabbed the child in front of other children.
The crime bears similarities to the Aschaffenburg double murder, with no known private connection between the suspect and the victim, except that they both resided in Nieuwegein. Neighbors reported that the suspect had a history of harassing behavior and at least three complaints had been filed with the authorities. The police had received multiple calls, including one on January 31 and another on the morning of the attack, hours before the fatal event.
A police spokesperson declined to confirm the reports and it was not clear if the victim had acquired Dutch citizenship. The police did confirm that the man had been acting erratically in the week prior to the attack.
The police have launched an investigation into the fatal stabbing and will review reports of the suspect’s erratic behavior. The mayor of Nieuwegein described the event as a “black time for the families and for Nieuwegein, a nightmare for all.