Dutch school shooting threat: former pupil arrested
An ex-student at the British School in the Netherlands has been arrested in connection with a threat made against a school in Leiden, say police.
Dutch police say they made the arrest this morning, after an anonymous threat was made on a social media networking site.
The post threatened violence against an unidentified teacher and “as many other pupils as possible”, according to the mayor of Leiden, Henri Lenferink.
Twenty-two middle schools in the city were closed down as a precaution, and given a police guard.
Nos news said the threat, written in English, was placed on the website 4chan.org over the weekend, stating “tomorrow, I will shoot my Dutch teacher and as many pupils as I can.”
And, the statement went on, “For more proof, I will be using a 9mm Colt Defender”, claiming: “the police is not gonna find me before tomorrow.”
A police spokeswoman said a person had been arrested in connection with the threat, while investigations continue.
In a statement, the British School said the pupil had been expelled in October 2011, “after incidents regarding his behaviour, and has therefore not attended the school for over a year.”
The school said they had been assured by police that there was never a threat to staff or students, and had stayed open, although pupils and their parents had been advised to stay at home.
In 2009, Dutch police arrested a man who had made threats about a school shooting on 4chan.org. He later claimed he had done it as a prank.
In 2011 a gunman went on the rampage with a semi automatic rifle in the nearbty town of Alphen aan de Rijn, killing six people as he fired at shoppers, in the country’s worst mass shooting in recent memory.