A Syrian man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ has been shot after fatally stabbing a police dog and attacking police officers with an axe in the Dutch city of Schiedam.
The attack took place after police attended the 26-year-old’s apartment in response to reports he was waving the axe while yelling the Arabic phrase from his balcony, Dutch outlet NOS reports.
An arrest team entered the apartment after negotiators found they were unable to bring the situation under control, with officers attempting to subdue the migrant with a taser before being forced to deploy their firearms.
He was rushed to hospital in critical condition following the incident but is now reported to be stable.
Photographers on the scene captured a picture of the wounded dog patched up with bandages following the struggle, and police initially tweeted that he was going to be OK — before updating followers with the sad news that he had succumbed to his injuries.
“This hero made the highest sacrifice yesterday,” the Rotterdam force account tweeted, along with a picture of their canine colleague.
Local media were appraised of the attacker’s Syrian background by Mayor Cor Lamers, who said he was “known to different aid agencies” but the authorities had “not seen [his actions] coming”.
The news comes as the Islamic State terror network claims responsibility for an apparent terror attack in neighbouring Belgium, in which Muslim convert Benjamin Herman stabbed two female police officers from behind before taking their service weapons and executing them.
Herman then crossed the road to a nearby school, shooting a 22-year-old car passenger dead while shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he did so, and taking a cleaning lady hostage.
The woman was spared after she told Herman she was a Muslim and observing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and the convert ultimately died during a shootout in which more police officers were injured.
The attack is reported to have shaken Belgium, which has already suffered mass-casualty terror bombings and is home to a large community of radical Muslims, centred in the Molenbeek no-go zone in Brussels.
“Every morning I am scared that something like this will happen, and every day it happens closer to home,” a woman leaving flowers at the scene of the latest killings told the Associated Press.
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