TWELVE Somalis suspected of involvement in terrorist activities arrested in the Dutch port of Rotterdam represented an “immediate, high-level” threat, the Netherlands’ prosecution service said.
The arrests were made late Friday after a tip-off by Dutch intelligence that a number of Somalis were planning an attack in the Netherlands relatively soon.
Six of the arrested Somalis, all aged between 19 and 48, lived in Rotterdam, while five had no known address and one was a Danish resident, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutor’s office added that those arrested represented an “immediate, high-level” threat, according to a Fox News Channel source.
A shop and four houses were searched in Rotterdam, as well as two motel rooms in the southern town of Gilze-Rijen, but no weapons or explosives were found, prosecutors said.
The men “are being questioned,” according to prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin, who added that “they will be brought before a judge within three days to decide whether or not to keep them in custody.”
De Bruin said more arrests were not on the cards “for now.”
Dutch news agency ANP quoted the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism as saying the arrests did not warrant changing the country’s terror threat level from “limited.”
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