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Rotterdam mayor says bus with gas bottles found outside cancelled concert

People gather at the scene where police are investigating a van (not pictured) with Spanish licence plates containing gas bottles that was found near a concert hall in Rotterdam, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters August 23, 2017. Social Media/Handout via REUTERS 

 

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A bus with Spanish licence plates and containing gas bottles was found near a concert hall where earlier on Wednesday a rock concert was cancelled due to a threat, Rotterdam's mayor said.

 

Ahmed Aboutaleb told a news conference it was not clear whether the threat and the bus were connected, though Spanish police had tipped Dutch authorities to a potential threat.

 

The bus driver was taken into police custody for questioning, Aboutaleb said.

 

He warned against "swift conclusions".

 

"It would be wrong at this moment to pile up these facts and conclude: thus there was a plan to attack with gas bottles, et cetera, because that was the picture last week in Barcelona. I would be careful with that."

 

He said that police and prosecutors had taken the threat against the concert seriously and it would now take time to investigate.

 

A bomb squad was examining the bus.

 

Police said the concert, which was to feature Californian band Allah-Las, was cancelled at around 7 p.m., shortly before doors were to be opened for guests, after a tip from Spanish police.

 

As concert-goers were sent away from the Maassilo, a former grain silo complex on the Maas river that has been converted into an event hall, the venue was cordoned off.

 

No arrests or detentions were reported until the bus driver was detained at around 9 p.m.

 

The National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism's office said the threat level in the Netherlands was unchanged at "substantial", where it has been since 2013.

 

Spanish police declined comment.

 

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Additional reporting by Bart Meijer and Jesus Aguado; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-24