Police shot a jihadists knifeman who stabbed two US tourists in Amsterdam just nine seconds after he began his attack, it has emerged. A ‘spotter’ had been tracking the 19-year-old, named as Jawed Santani, when he pulled out a blade and attacked the two 38-year-olds at the Dutch capital’s central station last week.
Just moments later, the Afghan asylum seeker was shot in the hip by officers, according to Amsterdam’s police chief.
The suspect had arrived on a train after travelling from his home in Piesport, western Germany, on Friday at around noon.
Amsterdam’s police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said an officer trained to spot pickpockets and potential terrorists noticed the Afghan’s ‘abnormal behaviour’ at the station.
Aalbersberg told Dutch TV: ‘He called two colleagues over. While they are working out how to go and talk to him, they see he starts stabbing.’
One of the Americans was knifed in the back before the second was stabbed.
But by this stage police were just over 60ft away and immediately drew their weapons. Santani was shot as he ran towards another person and was later arrested.
Aalbersberg added: ‘Within nine seconds it was over and the officers made the difference during one precise moment.’
These actions had saved lives, he said, adding that police used CCTV to determine within minutes that he had acted alone.
The suspect’s lawyer Simon van der Woude said: ‘My client seems to have taken into account that he would not survive this action because a last will and testament was found in his house in Germany.’
Santani had been living in the town of Piesport on the Rivel Moselle in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate having been accepted as an asylum seeker in 2015.