Five people have been injured after a stabbing near Amsterdam’s central Dam square, police have said.

Police said a suspect has been arrested but said a motive for the stabbing remains unclear.

A girl and elderly woman were among the victims, eyewitnesses told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper. “A boy then ran away,” one staff member at a nearby shop is reported to have told the Dutch news outlet.

(AP)

Footage shared on social media appeared to show a helicopter landing in the square, with injured people being taken to hospital and a large cordon being set up on both Sint Nicolaasstraat and Dam Square.

The stabbing is reported to have taken place shortly before 3:30pm local time, with De Telegraaf newspaper reporting that at least fourteen police cars and an officer on a motorcycle had swarmed the scene within 15 minutes.

The outlet cited a police spokesperson as saying that officers had received reports of a robbery, and that it was not yet clear whether there remained a risk to the public following the suspect’s arrest. “We are fully present there,” a spokesperson said.

Detectives said they would be seeking to establish a motive as part of their investigation, and have urged people with any footage of the incident to share it with police.

Dam Square is an area popular with tourists visiting the Dutch capital. It is in the historic centre of the city and includes landmarks such as the Royal Palace.

(ANP/Inter Visual Studio/AFP via)

Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema is reported to have been in a council meeting during the stabbing and to have withdrawn from a debate due to the incident.

Ms Halsema is instead meeting with chief prosecutor René de Beukelaer and police chief Peter Holla, her spokesperson told local outlets.

An employee at a shop situated at the scene of the stabbing is reported to have told Algemeen Dagblad: “It was very frightening. Customers saw an elderly woman being stabbed in the back. She was with her husband. I only saw it when the woman was lying on the ground. It was very grim.”

A passerby who fled into a nearby shop after witnessing a woman being stabbed told the outlet: “The woman fell to the ground. I’m shaking all over, it could have been me. I was in shock.”

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