Police guard the entrance to a closed store in Haarlem, western Netherlands, Wednesday Sept. 25, 2013. Three stores in the Dutch city of Haarlem have been closed after threats of an attack were made from an anonymous Twitter account. Haarlem police said in a statement Tuesday that they are taking the threats “seriously” and they are trying to identify the person behind the account, which has been suspended. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
AMSTERDAM (AP) — The mayor of the Dutch city of Haarlem says a suspect has been arrested in connection with a threat issued from a Twitter account that led to the closure of several stores and a school in the city center.
Mayor Bernt Schneiders said Wednesday the man was being interrogated at police headquarters and a “certain trail” led from him to the Twitter account — now suspended — where the threat was originally made.
Haarlem police said in a statement they were taking the threat seriously and ordered the closure of several stores, posting guards in body armor outside. Sniffer dogs swept the buildings for bombs, but didn’t find any. Students at a nearby high school were told to stay home.
The Tweets made late Tuesday said there would be a “bloodbath” at the department store V&D that would begin late Wednesday morning and end in suicide. Whoever placed the Tweets cited having been fired as the motive.
Schneiders confirmed that the person arrested had “had a labor conflict not so long ago.”
“It does appear that this is some kind of revenge,” he told local television RTV Nieuws.
Two V&D stores and a “La Place” restaurant were closed.
In April 2011, six people were killed by a psychologically troubled loner in a mall shooting in the Dutch city of Alphen aan den Rijn.
