Driver of car in Amsterdam explosion may have been attempting suicide, police say

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch police said they believed the driver of a car that caught fire on Thursday following an explosion in central Amsterdam may have been attempting to commit suicide.

Police arrested the man, a 50-year old Dutchman, on suspicion of arson. Nobody was hurt in the incident except the suspect.

“Police detectives are keeping all scenarios open but have strong suspicions that the man wanted to take his own life,” police said on the social media platform X.

Earlier, police said camera footage had shown the fire was caused by an explosion, which happened among a crowd of people on Amsterdam’s busy Dam Square.

Images on social media show a man with burning clothes close to a small red car with flames billowing from its windows. Police are seen extinguishing the flames on the man before taking him into custody.

Police sealed off the square while explosives experts investigated the vehicle. It was later removed from the square.

Last week, a man injured five people near Dam Square in a stabbing rampage. Police identified the suspect in that incident as a 30-year-old Ukrainian national from the eastern Donetsk region, who prosecutors said had acted with terrorist intent.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Ros Russell and Gareth Jones)