SPANIARDS based in Utrecht have recounted their experiences of the terrorist attack, revealing that they were ordered to stay indoors under lock and key until further notice.
Geology student Andrea Cuesta said sirens and helicopters were making a din which went on for most of the day, but that in the beginning she was not aware of what was happening.
Then, police entered the campus in the north-west of the Dutch town at around 12.30 and instructed everyone to stay on the premises with the doors locked.
Security guards were stationed on the doors and told all staff and students that if the opted to go outside, it was at their own risk – although they took down the names of everyone who chose to do so.
The 24-year-old said she and her fellow students were not released until around 17.00 last night (Monday), even though they were over three kilometres from the scene of the shoot-out which has so far claimed three lives and left nine injured.
Hundreds of children remained locked in their schools, and the University of Utrecht continued giving classes during the lock-in but with armed police patrolling the buildings.
Andrea and other Spaniards in Utrecht were worried about how they were going to get home last night – although the attack was on the tram, many were concerned about whether buses or bicycles were safe.
Fellow Spanish national Paco de Celis was at work when the attack happened at 10.45, and also ended up with a compulsory lock-in.
He sent a message out on Twitter to reassure his friends and family that he was safe and well.
Paco, who works in the town of Overtrecht, about three kilometres from the tram station of 24 Oktoberplein - where Turkish citizen Gökmen Tanis opened fire – said he and his colleagues heard about it on the radio.
He was shut indoors until around lunchtime, but was worried about his girlfriend who was also barricaded into her workplace, at a town-centre shopping mall.
All retail units had been closed to the public and fenced off, and nobody was allowed into or out of them.
Mosques in Utrecht were all evacuated as a precaution, since police did not know at first whether the shoot-out was the work of far-right terrorists such as the white supremist who killed 24 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand at the weekend.
Spain’s National Police has tweeted the telephone number of the nearest Spanish embassy in The Netherlands – (0031) 652665078, or the same without the country code but with a 0 at the beginning for anyone calling from within the northern European country – and urged anyone with Spanish nationality in Utrecht, or who has friends and family there with a Spain passport, to make contact as soon as possible.
Gökmen Tanis has been arrested, and it is not thought that any other person was involved in perpetrating the attack.
