The Netherlands: Syrian immigrant, a Poet, among the dead in Mall shooting

Thousands of people, including numerous immigrants and the Dutch prime minister, gathered to lay flowers and mourn at a candlelit memorial service outside a mall at Alpen a/d Rijn where a mentally troubled man shot six people dead and killed himself a day earlier.

Investigators are still puzzling over the gunman's motive and trying to understand how he was able to obtain and legally own five firearms in the Netherlands, where gun control laws are considered very strict, despite prior run-ins with the law and a stay at a psychiatric institution.

The attacker, identified as 24-year-old Tristan van der Vlis, opened fire at the Ridderhof mall in Alphen aan den Rijn with a machine gun on a beautiful spring Saturday, authorities said. Many of his  victims were elderly people who were unable to flee.

Authorities did not publicly release victims' identities, citing privacy reasons. Mayor of Alphen aan den Rijn,   Bas Eenhoorn, said the victims all lived in Alphen, but said one was an 42-year-old immigrant from Syria, a poet. "And it was in our 'safe' country that he died because of this violence,"  Eenhoorn said.

EU-Digest