Three dead in Dutch shooting: Utrecht mayor

Utrecht, Netherlands: Three people were killed and nine injured in a shooting in the Dutch city of Utrecht, the mayor said Monday, adding that authorities were working on the basis of it being a terrorist attack.

"At this stage, we can confirm three deaths and nine wounded, three of them seriously," Utrecht Mayor Jan van Zanen said in a video statement on Twitter.

"We are working on the principle that it was a terrorist attack," he added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had earlier said there were "possible deaths" and that a terrorist motive was "not excluded".

Rutte told a brief press conference in The Hague with the country´s justice minister that there were "several wounded and possible deaths" in the incident.

Photographs had earlier shown one body lying under a sheet at the scene.

Armed counter-terrorism police launched a huge manhunt for the attacker, urging local residents in one of the Netherlands´ biggest cities to stay indoors in case of further incidents.

Police released a picture of the Turkish-born suspect, naming him as 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis, and warning people not to approach him.