Shooting incident during festival at Rotterdam Ahoy

A man was seriously injured during a shooting at I Love Urban festival, which took place at Rotterdam Ahoy in the Netherlands, last weekend.

The incident took place around 4:30 am, as the 8,000-capacity festival was coming to a close, a spokesperson said, and several thousand people were still present at that time.

Two suspects, aged 20 and 31, both from Rotterdam, were arrested in the incident and the victim was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Rotterdam Ahoy announced that it is investigating the shooting incident and how the firearm could enter the building.

“We at Ahoy are very shocked by this situation,” a spokesperson said. “Our concern first and foremost goes out to victims and any employees involved and we will, in collaboration with the organiser, investigate how this could have happened.”

“We at Ahoy are very shocked by this situation”

In a separate incident at the festival, two more men were arrested – one for assaulting a police officer and the other for insulting the police. The first was shocked with a stun gun when he was arrested. According to the police, there is no link between these suspects and the shooting incident that took place earlier.

I Love Urban is organised by actor and comedian Jandino Asporaat. This edition featured artists including Frenna, Jonna Fraser, Bilal Wahib, Bizzey, Idaly, and Poke.

Ahoy said that safety has “our utmost attention… certainly also during upcoming events”. Sunday’s events at the venue were not affected.

It comes a month after the Amsterdam municipality introduced new regulations for event organisers in response to a murder at a local festival.

The new rules require events with a capacity of more than 2,000 people to halt ticket sales one day before the event takes place, among other things.

The restrictions come after a 21-year-old man was stabbed to death in May at Amsterdam-based techno and house festival Solid Grooves, organised by ID&T-backed Apenkooi.

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