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Update: Poland Readies For Allah-Las Concert
Police are on the scene and bodyguards are carrying out detailed checks of fans arriving for a concert in Warsaw of a U.S. rock band whose gig in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was canceled Wednesday due to a terror threat.
Alik Keplicz/AP – Outside Niebo
Spectators are checked by security guards as the enter a club for a concert by the American Allah-Las rock band, in Warsaw, Poland.
A few hundred fans were expected Thursday night at the
Amandine Roux, 21, from Roanne in France, lined up with her boyfriend. She says “we had planned to come to the concert some time ago and this scare in Rotterdam did not change our decision.”
A Polish fan, Joanna Konieczna, 32, was excited that she would be hearing her favorite band live. She says “the events in Rotterdam did not scare me, I feel very safe in Poland.”
Dutch Police Detain Suspect In Concert Threat (posted Thursday, August 24 at 8:52 a.m. PDT)
Alerted by a detailed tip from Spanish colleagues, Dutch police arrested a 22-year-old man early Thursday and said he was suspected of preparing a “terrorist attack” on a concert by an American rock band.
The arrest in Brabant province, south of Rotterdam, came hours after police canceled a performance Wednesday night by Los Angeles band Allah-Las at a converted grain silo in the heart of the port city.
RTL via AP – Rotterdam Police
Stand behind a cordoned-off area after a concert by an American rock band was cancelled Wednesday night following a threat.
“The suspicion is that the suspect is involved in the preparation of a terrorist attack,” Rotterdam Police Chief Frank Paauw said.
“There is no terror threat now anymore,” he added. “There is no threat because we have arrested a suspect and the information about the threat was so specific on the location of the event that, with that arrest, we can conclude that the threat is gone.”
Police searched the man’s home after his arrest but released no details of anything they found. His identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines.
Meanwhile, a Spanish mechanic detained Thursday night while driving, apparently drunk, a white van containing a number of gas canisters close to the concert venue was to be questioned once he sobered up, police said.
However, he did not appear to be a terror suspect. Police said a search of his home uncovered nothing to indicate he was linked to the threat. Explosives experts who combed through the van’s contents found a few gas canisters but nothing suspicious, police said.
The 22-year-old suspect was being questioned by police and prosecutors. If authorities want to prolong his detention they will have to arraign him at a closed-doors hearing with an investigative judge before the end of Friday, prosecution spokeswoman Jeichien de Graaff said.
Dutch Counterterror Coordinator Dick Schoof commended the police action on Twitter, saying it was “alert, appropriate for the current threat level.”
Schoof left the country’s threat level unchanged at “substantial,” the fourth step of a five-level scale.
It was not clear what the nature of the threat to the concert was, or if the band’s name played any role in the threat.
In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian last year, band members said they chose the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy-sounding” name and did not realize it might cause offense.
“We get emails from Muslims, here in the U.S. and around the world, saying they’re offended, but that absolutely wasn’t our intention,” lead singer Miles Michaud told the newspaper. “We email back and explain why we chose the name, and mainly they understand.”
Police in Warsaw, Poland, said security was being beefed up for the band’s performance there Thursday night.
Robert Szumiata of Warsaw police told The Associated Press they had no information of any threat to the concert to be held at the downtown NIEBO, or Heaven, club.
Still, he said that uniformed and plain clothes police will be deployed at and around the concert site in order to “ensure security of people taking part in the concert and those who will find themselves in the area.”
Spain, already on high alert following last week’s deadly attacks in and near Barcelona, played a key role in the events of Wednesday and Thursday.
A Spanish counterterrorism official said Spain’s Civil Guard received “an alert indicating the possibility of an attack in a concert that was going to take place in Rotterdam.”
The Civil Guard shared the information with Dutch authorities Wednesday and was investigating the threat, said the official, who spoke anonymously because the Civil Guard is still probing the threat.
Dutch Police Detain Driver Of Van Near Canceled Gig (Posted Wednesday, Aug. 23 at 2:30 p.m. PDT)
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.
Dario Lopez-Mills/AP, file – Allah-Las
Lead singer Miles Michaud performs during the second and last day of the Corona Capital Music Festival in Mexico City.
Police earlier said the concert by Los Angeles band Allah-Las was called off after Dutch police received a terror warning. Aboutaleb said the warning came from Spanish police.
He declined to give further details on the nature of the warning or where in Spain it came from, adding that it was too soon to link the van to unspecified threat directed at the concert.
“It is not yet good to say that the things are linked,” Aboutaleb said. “It still has to be established that there was a link between the van and the threat. We can’t say that yet.”
Police in Spain have been investigating the deadly vehicle attacks last week that killed 15 people in and near Barcelona. They later found bomb-making equipment that included more than 100 tanks of butane gas, nails, and 500 liters of acetone.
Rotterdam police said they took the information about a threat “seriously enough that after discussion with organizers it was decided to cancel the event.”
Concert organizer Rotown said earlier on Twitter that the concert venue, a former grain silo called Maassilo, was being evacuated because of the unspecified threat.
RTL via AP – Van Of Mystery
In this image taken from video a van is examined behind a cordoned-off area in Rotterdam.
The show hadn’t yet started when the decision to cancel it was made.
Dutch television showed officers in body armor outside Maassilo and what appeared to be members of the band leaving the venue in a white van with a police escort.
Allah-Las is a four-piece band from Los Angeles.
In an email to The Associated Press, the band’s label, Mexican Summer, said: “Due to a potential terror threat at
“Details are not available at this time as the incident is still under investigation. The band is unharmed and are very grateful to the Rotterdam Police and other responsible agencies for detecting the potential threat before anyone was hurt.”
In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian last year, band members said they chose the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a “holy sounding” name and did not realize it might cause offense.
“We get emails from Muslims, here in the U.S. and around the world, saying they’re offended, but that absolutely wasn’t our intention,” lead singer Miles Michaud told the newspaper. “We email back and explain why we chose the name, and mainly they understand.”