A police dog has died after it was axed to death by a Syrian man who attacked police officers trying to arrest him. Neighbours reported the man after he was spotted on the balcony of a flat waving the axe and shouting ‘Allahu akbar in Scheidam, near Rotterdam, Holland. Officers tried to calm the 26-year-old down but were unable to and he was shot and wounded. When police squads raided the flat he attacked them and stabbed the police dog which died from its injuries.
Schiedam Mayor Cor Lamers issued a statement saying that the suspect was a Syrian who had been living with his father in Schiedam since last year. ‘The man was known to several help organisations but this was an escalation we had not seen coming,’ Lamers said. The confrontation came a day after a man in Belgium attacked and killed two female police officers and fatally shot a passer-by.