Three dead after attack on tram in Netherlands

Three people have been killed following a shooting on a tram in the central Dutch city of Utrecht, the city's mayor says.

Nine others were injured in the incident, which police say appears to be a terrorist attack.

Police are hunting a Turkish-born 37-year-old in connection with a suspected terror attack in Utrecht. The gunman has been on the run since this morning, forcing vast parts of the city - including mosques and schools - into lockdown.

Officers reported "multiple" injuries having been called to the incident on the tram in a residential neighbourhood on Monday morning.

The suspect was named by police in Utrecht as Gökmen Tanis, and local media reported the perpetrator escaped in a red car.

Moments before the attack, police confirmed a red Renault Clio had been stolen in a carjacking around a mile from the tram shooting.

It was later found abandoned some three miles away in a suburban area of the city.

Gunfire erupted at several locations in Utrecht, the Dutch national counter-terrorism chief said after the incident on the tram.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said in a press conference that if it was a terror attack, it would not undermine Dutch openness and democracy.

"Our country today has been jolted by an attack," Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Monday. "Police and prosecutors are looking into what exactly happened."

"What's known now is that there was shooting at people sitting in a tram," he added. He described the attack as "deeply disturbing".

"We cannot exclude a terrorist motive," Dutch anti-terrorism co-ordinator Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg told a news conference on Monday.

He added that there had been shootings at "several locations", but did not elaborate on where these were.

The terror threat level to a maximum level of five in the Utrecht region, the first time that this has happened in The Netherlands. Parties have also suspended campaigning for upcoming elections.

But police said they were not ruling any motive out, after a witness said it appeared the gunman was targeting one particular woman and attacking anyone who tried to help her.

Schools have closed and security has been increased while counter-terrorism police work to find the gunman.