Van with gas bottles found outside cancelled concert in Rotterdam

Police in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam detained the driver of a van with Spanish license plates and a number of gas tanks inside after a concert by an American rock band was cancelled Wednesday night following a threat, the city’s mayor said.

Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said at a hastily arranged press conference that the van’s Spanish driver was being questioned by police. Military explosives experts were deployed to Rotterdam to examine the van, police said.

A Spanish counterterrorism official said the van is not connected to the attacks that killed 15 people in Spain last week.

The official said investigators discarded a possible link between the van’s driver and the extremist cell that carried out the attacks in and near Barcelona after questioning the driver and examining the van. Rotterdam police could not be reached for a reaction to the Spanish official’s comments.

Police detained the driver for questioning about two hours after a concert by Los Angeles band Allah-Las was called off after Dutch police received a terror warning. Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said the warning came from Spanish police.